Karim Khojasteh
Karim Khojasteh is a 64-year-old father of two and industrial machinery engineer from Bandar Anzali. He is also a former political prisoner who survived the 1980s massacre. He was arrested on 21 July 2024 for putting up a protest banner and charged with “propaganda against the system.” According to his lawyer Milad Panahipour, a bail of 100 million tomans was set, which he was able to pay but “his detention was prolonged until 20 August 2024, at which point he was arraigned on the charge of 'acting against national security' and his bail was increased to 500 million tomans.” Yet, his detention continued until 30 November 2024 when the court finally accepted his bail.
He was rearrested on 13 March 2025 and indicted on the charge of baghy “despite the fact that he had engaged in no new activities, and his previous actions were limited solely to putting up banners.” His lawyer wrote: “In the interval between his temporary release and his re-arrest, no new investigations or documents were added to the case file. It remains completely incomprehensible how a charge of propaganda, which is one of the mildest security offences, could be altered to baghy. An exceptionally bizarre aspect of this case is that following the arraignment on the charge of baghy, no new interrogations took place. Instead, an indictment for baghy was issued, and the case was sent to court based entirely on the interrogations conducted for the original propaganda charge.”
“I must stress that this is not a scenario where the prosecutor's office and the judicial agents allege armed action and the defence is simply denying it; rather, no such allegation has ever been made. Both the agents and the prosecutor's office explicitly acknowledge that his actions did not exceed putting up banners. Nevertheless, the Revolutionary Court, completely disregarding these facts and rejecting all defence arguments, proceeded to hand down a sentence of death by hanging. This occurred following a trial lasting only a few minutes, during which the judge solely questioned him on whether he accepted or denied the charges, as if the court had no other questions to consider,” the lawyer added.
CHARGES: Baghy (armed rebellion) through membership of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK)
STATUS: On 17 September 2025, Karim was tried by Branch 2 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ahmad Darvish Goftar. He was informed of his death sentence on 6 December. His case is currently under review at the Supreme Court.