IRAN - Mohammad Faraji and Raouf Sheikh Maroufi

IRAN -Two Kurdish political prisoners, Mohammad Faraji and Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, sentenced to death

February 24, 2026:

February 24, 2026 - IRAN. Two Kurdish political prisoners, Mohammad Faraji and Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, sentenced to death

Arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) protests.
According to information received by Hengaw, Sheikh Maroufi, 24, and Faraji, 23, both residents of Bukan, were sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Mahabad on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”) and efsad-e fel-arz (“corruption on earth”), two capital offenses under Iranian law.
Separate hearings were held in the autumn, and the death sentences were formally communicated to the two men on February 24, 2026, inside Bukan Central Prison.
Sheikh Maroufi was arrested on December 26, 2022, and Faraji on February 21, 2023, during security operations carried out by Intelligence Ministry agents in Bukan. Sources report that both arrests involved the use of severe physical force. They were initially transferred to an Intelligence Ministry detention facility.
After several months of interrogation at the Intelligence detention center in Urmia — during which they were subjected to physical and psychological torture — the two men were transferred on June 10, 2023, to Bukan Central Prison. Since then, they have remained in detention amid prolonged legal uncertainty.

https://hengaw.net/en/news/2026/02/article-151