TAHRAN: A Revolutionary Court in Tehran has sentenced Nasimeh Eslamzahi, a Baloch mother who gave birth while in prison, to death along with two other prisoners of conscience, Arsalan Sheikhi and Hassan, on charges of “enmity against God” through alleged ties to ISIS, accusations all three deny.
The verdict was issued by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salvati, known for handing down harsh sentences in politically sensitive cases.
Eslamzehi, approximately 40 years old and from Saravan in Iranian Occupied Balochistan, was pregnant at the time of her arrest in September 2023.
She was detained along with her husband, Abdulrahman (Arsalan) Kurdi, and their young child. Security forces claimed the couple possessed weapons at the time of arrest, a claim that remains unproven.
Following their arrest, the couple was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran, where Eslamzehi spent three months in solitary confinement, followed by three more months under interrogation in shared cells.
In March 2024, while still pregnant, she was moved to the women’s ward of Evin Prison. Her daughter, Tasnim, was later born in Qarchak Varamin Prison, where both mother and newborn were held in unsanitary and poorly ventilated solitary confinement for weeks.
Sources close to the family revealed that interrogators threatened to place the newborn with a Shia family, as they had done with the couple’s first daughter, Ayesha, whose whereabouts remain unknown since the parents’ arrest.
Despite denying any involvement in the alleged bombing on the Tehran–Ilam highway, which authorities claim resulted in the death of a child, Eslamzehi and the other defendants were convicted in as a non-transparent trial lacking credible evidence.
Human rights organisations have condemned the ruling, calling it a symbol of the systemic repression of Baloch women in Iran. “This case shows how motherhood is being used as a weapon of psychological torture,” activists highlighted.
Eslamzehi and her husband have had no contact or visitation rights since their detention began over a year ago.
The sentencing has sparked outrage among rights groups, who have urged international pressure on Iran to halt the executions and investigate due process violations in politically and ethnically charged cases.