The faceless judge who sentenced 11 Iranian protesters to death in 2026

The faceless judge who sentenced 11 Iranian protesters to death in 2026

A little-known judge in northeastern Iran has sentenced at least 11 protesters to death since nationwide protests erupted in January and served on the judicial panels that sentenced two others who were subsequently executed, an Iran International investigation has found.

Hossein Yazdankhah heads Branch 5 of Mashhad's Revolutionary Court and also serves as an associate judge in politically sensitive proceedings in Mashhad and nearby Sabzevar.

Drawing on court documents, correspondence from a human rights lawyer, reports by human rights organizations, testimony from political prisoners' families and interviews with legal experts and an activist, Iran International documented Yazdankhah's involvement in death sentences, lengthy prison terms, prosecutions of lawyers and the confiscation of critics' property.

Despite his role in these cases, Yazdankhah has maintained a remarkably low public profile. Iran International was unable to locate any publicly available photograph of him, including in Iranian state media.

“Yazdankhah is someone ready to issue rulings that other judges would probably not readily accept,” Iranian lawyer Marzieh Mohebbi, who says Yazdankhah ordered the confiscation of four properties belonging to her, told Iran International.

“In Khorasan, wherever executions, heavy prison sentences, confiscation of property and organized repression are involved, Yazdankhah is there too.”

His judicial record also includes sentencing prominent political prisoner Fatemeh Sepehri and her two brothers to a combined 32 years in prison, as well as involvement in death sentences against award-winning boxer and political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

Yazdankhah was also the subject of a formal disciplinary complaint filed by human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was subsequently sentenced to prison by his court and died under disputed circumstances in December 2025.

Six death sentences in the Shandiz case

Six of the 11 January protest detainees received death sentences in a joint case involving demonstrations in Shandiz, near Mashhad: Mehdi Zarif, Hossein Rasouli-Nasab, Hassan Golshennezhad, Matin Shabani, Ali Zaghi and Ilia Akbari.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) identified Yazdankhah as the presiding judge and Seyed Reza Javad Mousavi as an associate judge in the proceedings before Branch 5.

The case concerns protests on January 8 and 9, 2026. Authorities accused the defendants of damaging public property and setting fires at religious premises.

HRANA reported charges including moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” and assembly and collusion against national security. In a separate report on Golshennezhad, it also cited allegations of operational activity benefiting Israel.

A source familiar with Zarif's case confirmed to Iran International that Yazdankhah issued his death sentence and that the Supreme Court upheld it. The source said Zarif's lawyer had been denied access to the full judgment and evidence.

HRANA separately reported that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences against Zarif and Rasouli-Nasab, while the other four defendants had received initial death sentences.

Five other protesters sentenced to death

Three more detainees — Vahid Khedrikhah, Matin Farnian and Abolfazl Sedaghat — received death sentences in another joint case before Yazdankhah's branch.

HRANA initially reported three death sentences without identifying all the defendants. It subsequently named Khedrikhah and Farnian but left the third defendant unnamed.

Sources familiar with the case identified Sedaghat to Iran International as the third defendant. Mohebbi independently confirmed that Yazdankhah's court had sentenced him to death and said he had been denied a lawyer of his choosing.

HRANA reported that the defendants were arrested on January 19 and 20 and sentenced on moharebeh charges.

Two other defendants, Pouria Hosseini-Mofrad and Amir Delshad, received death sentences in separate proceedings before Branch 5.

HRANA identified Yazdankhah as presiding judge and Mousavi as associate judge in both cases and reported that appeals had been registered with the Supreme Court.

The allegations against Delshad included activities deemed harmful to national security in support of an opposition group, as well as arson and destruction of public property.

An associate judge in two execution cases

Yazdankhah's involvement in capital cases extends beyond proceedings in which he presides.

Mohebbi told Iran International that he served as an associate judge in the cases of Mehdi Rasouli and Mohammadreza Miri, whose death sentences were issued by Branch 1 of Mashhad's Revolutionary Court under presiding judge Gholamreza Akbari-Moghadam.

Both men were executed on May 3 at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. Authorities accused them of involvement in the killing of a Basij paramilitary member during January's protests.

A source cited by HRANA said Rasouli disputed the allegations and had told people close to him that he was forced to accept the charges under beatings and torture.

Mohebbi described Yazdankhah's participation in capital proceedings in Mashhad as pervasive.

“He is present in all death-penalty cases in Mashhad's Revolutionary Court, either as the presiding judge or as an associate judge,” she said.

“Wherever a person's life or property is to be taken, if Mr. Yazdankhah is not the presiding judge, he is an associate judge, and his opinion plays a fundamental role in issuing the verdict.”

Treating protest as espionage

Beyond the sentences themselves, Mohebbi described what she said was a recurring pattern in Yazdankhah's judicial reasoning: treating participation in anti-government protests as evidence of acting on behalf of foreign powers.

She said he repeatedly invoked legislation adopted in 2025 that tightened punishments for espionage.

According to Mohebbi, the reasoning attributed to Yazdankhah begins with the assertion that Israel and the United States exploited public anger over economic conditions and that protest calls by exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi served foreign intelligence agencies.

It then treats people responding to those calls as spies, she said, without requiring evidence of an actual relationship with a foreign government.

“For the crime of espionage to be established, there is no need for a relationship between the defendant and the government of Israel or America,” Mohebbi said, describing the reasoning she attributed to Yazdankhah.

“Simply being in the street and, for example, damaging public property — whether a roadside tree, a traffic camera or a religious building — is itself treated as espionage.”

She said this interpretation applied even if the foreign government supposedly benefiting from the actions knew nothing about them, or if the defendant had never imagined that protesting could be construed as spying for Israel.

Mohebbi argued that the repetition of similar reasoning across judgments suggested a predetermined approach rather than an individual assessment of defendants' conduct and evidence.

“He uses the same reasoning in all these cases that lead to death sentences,” she said. “There is no sign of the knowledge or approach required for careful, rigorous examination based on established principles of due process.”

She also said similarities in the language of judgments led her to believe Yazdankhah had drafted rulings in some proceedings where he served as an associate judge.

Travel to Sabzevar for sentencing

Yazdankhah's involvement in political cases also extends beyond Mashhad.

Activist Shahram Sadidi told Iran International that the judge traveled to nearby Sabzevar in early October to participate in proceedings against political prisoner Mohsen Khalesi, who received a 15-year prison sentence.

The charges included cooperating with hostile states and deliberate arson intended to confront the Islamic Republic.

An extract of the judgment shared by Sadidi with Iran International identifies Yazdankhah as an associate judge in Branch 1 of Sabzevar's Revolutionary Court, alongside Akbari-Moghadam.

Mohebbi said his participation in such cases demonstrated that his judicial influence was not confined to the court he heads in Mashhad.

“He even turns up in political cases in Sabzevar and, as an associate judge of the Revolutionary Court, participates in issuing heavy prison sentences and death sentences,” she said.

Sepehri siblings sentenced to 32 years

In June 2024, Yazdankhah sentenced prominent political activist Fatemeh Sepehri and her brothers Mohammad-Hossein and Hossein to prison terms totaling 32 years.

Fatemeh, an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic who had publicly called for then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's resignation, received an additional 18 years and six months in prison.

Her sentence included seven years for supporting Israel, seven years for assembly and collusion against national security, three years for insulting Khamenei and 18 months for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

According to her family, the charges related in part to statements condemning Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Mohammad-Hossein received eight years and Hossein five years and six months on charges including assembly and collusion, insulting the supreme leader and propaganda against the state.

Fatemeh was already imprisoned following her arrest during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. Her brothers were arrested in September 2023 while attending to her medical needs at a Mashhad hospital, according to their family.

The family questioned the basis of the charges, including allegations of assembly and collusion against defendants already held in detention.

Human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who later faced prosecution before Yazdankhah, had represented both Fatemeh and Mohammad-Hossein.

The lawyer who complained against Yazdankhah

On February 15, 2024, Alikordi publicly announced that he had filed disciplinary complaints against Yazdankhah and fellow Mashhad Revolutionary Court judge Hadi Mansouri.

In a post on X addressed to judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, Alikordi accused the judges of preventing defendants' chosen lawyers from presenting their defence during hearings.

An accompanying message confirmed that a complaint had been registered with the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office for Judges on February 7.

Alikordi also said he had complained against investigating magistrate Mohsen Golmohammadi Tolayi, alleging bias against a lawyer.

The outcome of the complaints has not been publicly established.

Months later, Alikordi himself faced proceedings before Yazdankhah's court. In October 2024, Branch 5 sentenced him to another year in prison for propaganda against the Islamic Republic over social media material.

In a letter sent to Mohebbi before his death and shared with Iran International, Alikordi identified Yazdankhah as the judge who sentenced him.

“I was sentenced to one year in prison by Hossein Yazdankhah, head of Branch 5 of Mashhad's Revolutionary Court, on the charge of ‘propaganda against the Islamic Republic in favor of opposition groups,’” he wrote.

The letter also described five cases brought against him by the Intelligence Ministry, along with professional restrictions and barriers to continuing his education.

Alikordi had previously received a separate one-year sentence, as well as exile and a ban on practicing law, in proceedings presided over by Mansouri.

On December 6, 2025, Alikordi was found dead in his Mashhad office.

Iran Human Rights reported that relatives observed bruising, head injuries and bleeding from his nose and mouth. The organization said police seized security camera recordings from the office and that his family had not been granted access to the footage.

Iranian authorities attributed his death to a heart attack and rejected allegations that he had been killed.

His brother, Javad Alikordi, challenged the official account and called for the release of the camera footage. Iran Human Rights called for an independent international investigation.

The circumstances of Alikordi's death remain disputed.

Prosecution of lawyers

Alikordi was not the only lawyer to face prosecution in Yazdankhah's court.

In April 2025, Yazdankhah sentenced 12 lawyers to a combined three years in prison and 2.4 billion rials in fines on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” according to HRANA. Of the prison sentences, 21 months were suspended for five years.

The case stemmed from complaints by Mashhad's Intelligence Department over the lawyers' social media posts, including criticism of the judicial proceedings against Mohammad Ghobadlou, a protester executed in January 2024.

“Cases involving the repression of defense lawyers are referred to him,” Mohebbi said.

Death sentences against award-winning boxer

Yazdankhah has also been linked to earlier death sentences against Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, an Iranian boxing champion arrested in March 2020 over his participation in the November 2019 anti-government protests.

According to the rights group Iran Human Rights Monitor, Yazdankhah and fellow judge Saadi Makan were responsible for two death sentences against Vafaei Sani.

The boxer has been sentenced to death three times on charges of “corruption on earth,” which he denies.

His third death sentence was issued by Branch 3 of Mashhad's Revolutionary Court in September 2024, despite the Supreme Court having overturned earlier rulings.

The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in October 2025 and rejected a retrial request in December. His lawyer subsequently announced a stay of execution, although the sentence remained in place.

More than 20 Olympic medalists, athletes and coaches have called for his release, while the World Boxing Council has urged Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence.

Vafaei Sani received the 2026 Magnitsky Human Rights Award in the Outstanding Human Rights Activist category in November, bringing renewed attention to his case.

Confiscating critics' property

Mohebbi said Yazdankhah also presides over Mashhad's Article 49 court, which examines allegations of illegitimately acquired wealth.

The court operates separately within the Revolutionary Court premises and handles confiscation proceedings involving property belonging to people associated with the former monarchy, Baha'is and Iranians abroad accused of links to hostile governments or organizations, she said.

Mohebbi herself says Yazdankhah ordered the confiscation of four properties belonging to her.

“He issued an extraordinary judgment against me, based on lies and fabricated and imaginary evidence,” she said. “It resembled a bitter satire more than a court judgment.”

“The result was the plundering of 30 years of my work, acquired entirely legally and legitimately, under the government's own regulations and with taxes paid.”

In September 2023, Yazdankhah also ordered the confiscation of an apartment belonging to Iranian writer Soroush Mozaffar-Moghadam, citing his interviews with Persian-language media abroad and alleged propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic.

Mohebbi said the confiscation proceedings reflected the same approach she had observed in political prosecutions: reliance on intelligence reports without independently verifying disputed allegations.

No Western sanctions designation

Despite his documented involvement in politically sensitive prosecutions, Iran International found no individual designation for Yazdankhah in US Treasury sanctions records, the UK sanctions list or published EU sanctions measures.

Washington has previously sanctioned Iranian judges for abuses involving political prosecutions.

In December 2019, the US Treasury designated Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghisseh, citing their use of unfair trials to impose death sentences and lengthy prison terms on journalists, lawyers, political activists and religious minorities.

Britain and the EU also designated another Mashhad judge, Hadi Mansouri, in February 2023. The EU cited his involvement in death sentences against protesters and violations of their right to a fair trial.

No comparable individual designation for Yazdankhah was identified in those jurisdictions.

‘Fully trusted by the machinery of repression’

Mohebbi said the repeated reasoning in Yazdankhah's judgments, his reliance on intelligence reports and his alleged failure to verify disputed claims led her to conclude that he worked closely with both the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organization.

“Given the repetition of the arguments in his death sentences, his reliance on intelligence agents' reports in all the judgments — including the confiscation of my own property — and his failure to verify those reports despite objections from defendants and lawyers, it appears that Yazdankhah issues rulings in complete coordination and cooperation with those agencies,” she said.

Her assessment portrays a judge whose influence, in her view, rests on the authorities' confidence that he will deliver the rulings they seek.

“More than a judge acting in a judicial capacity, he is a committed and loyal figure, fully trusted by the machinery of repression.”