Varisheh Moradi, a woman human rights defender and Kurdish political prisoner, was sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial by the Iranian judiciary in November 2024 on charges of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) due to her affiliation with Kurdish opposition groups. She is a member of the group East Kurdistan Free Woman Society (KJAR).

On 10 December 2025, Branch 9 of Iran’s Supreme Court overturned her death sentence and ordered a retrial, due to “deficiencies in the investigation and failure to follow legal procedures.”

On 1 August 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents violently arrested Moradi in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and subjected her to enforced disappearance. In August 2024, she sent an open letter from prison, in which she said that she was  subjected to torture, solitary confinement and other ill-treatment following her arrest. She was transferred to Evin prison in August 2023 and held in prolonged solitary confinement for over four months and interrogated without a lawyer. Her trial was held on 16 June and 5 October 2024, when the court prevented her and her lawyer from making a defence. She was then prosecuted in a separate case for her peaceful activism in prison, including protests against the death penalty, which take place in prison every Tuesday as part of the ‘No to Execution’ campaign. She undertook a three-week long hunger strike in October 2024, which took a toll on her health, and she has been denied proper health care.