Hana has learned that the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Arman Marefati, a 38-year-old resident of Tehran from Saqqez County, who was arrested during the protests of January 2026 and sentenced to death. He is currently being held in Ward 37 of Unit 3 in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.
Mr. Marefati was previously sentenced to death by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, on charges of “participation in operational acts against national security, entering religious sites with intent to destroy them, and participation in setting fire to a mosque and a religious seminary.”
At the trial hearing, however, the prosecutor’s representative had described the charge against him as “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against the country’s internal security through participation in the protests.” The presiding judge nonetheless invoked Article 280 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to change the charge and make it more severe. Mr. Marefati was tried in a joint case alongside two other protesters from Ghorveh, Mehrdad Mohammadinia and Ashkan Maleki. The death sentences of those two prisoners were carried out in June 2026, and Mr. Marefati was transferred from Greater Tehran Penitentiary to Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj the same month.
Mr. Marefati worked as a laborer at Tehran’s fruit and vegetable market to support his family. He is the father of two young children.