Kurdish prisoner exposes forced confession before execution by Iran

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish prisoner Mehrab Abdollahzadeh revealed that he was forced to confess to a crime he did not commit, according to a phone call with a rights group published after his execution by Iranian authorities on Sunday.

He was executed in northwestern Urmia early Sunday after being charged with involvement in the killing of an Iranian paramilitary officer during the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests — a claim he denied.

“'Because you won’t work with us, you have to confess to something,'" Abdollahzadeh, 28, said in a phone call with the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a copy of which was obtained by Rudaw English. He was citing an Iranian intelligence officer as telling him during interrogations.

"We know you didn’t do it," he continued, citing the officer, adding that he was forced to sign three pages of confessions.

The executed Kurdish prisoner owned a barbershop in Urmia. He was arrested one month after the anti-government protests in October 2022 before being transferred to a detention center run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Abdollahzadeh had been accused of killing a member of the Basij, a voluntary paramilitary group that serves as one of the IRGC’s branches, according to KHRN.

He said in the phone call that he was tortured “spiritually and physically,” adding that he was also accused of Fasad-fil-Arz (spreading corruption on earth) — a charge Iranian authorities often use in cases that carry the death penalty.

“[They said] ‘You have to be our guy’ and they insisted I give them names,” he added.

Iran has accelerated the issuance of death sentences since the outbreak of its war with the United States and Israel on February 28 — a confrontation that lasted nearly six weeks before a ceasefire on April 8.

Last week, the United Nations confirmed 21 executions and more than 4,000 arrests since the war. Individuals detained during the 2022 protests, the January 2026 protests, and the 12-Day war with Israel in June 2025 — along with those arrested during wartime in March this year — have faced expedited legal proceedings, with charges including espionage and “collaboration with enemy.”

In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International said that “the international community must not stand idly by while the Iranian authorities continue to escalate the arbitrary execution of political dissidents and protesters to instill fear.”

“Even the victim’s family knows I am innocent,” Abdollahzadeh said in the phone call, noting that he had not appeared in footage of the killing of the Basij member.

Abdollahzadeh was taken to solitary confinement on Thursday alongside two other political prisoners — Naser Bakrzadeh and Yaghoub Karimpour — who were executed on Saturday.