Arman Marefati

Arman Marefati is a 30-year-old Kurdish citizen from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who was arrested by security forces in Tehran during the protests of 8 and 9 January 2026. He was tried together with Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia in what is known as the “Jafari Mosque” case. The three were prosecuted over the arson and destruction of the Jafari Mosque and Imam Hadi Seminary in Tehran’s Kuy-e Nasr neighborhood. At trial, his charges were raised from “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against internal national security” to complicity in “operational actions against national security on behalf of Israel, the United States, and hostile groups” and the destruction and arson of religious sites. He admitted moving rubbish bins from further up the street to the front of the mosque. When the judge asked why he burned the mosque, he said he had only moved two bins and done nothing else. In March 2026, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, sentenced him and his co-defendants to death without access to a lawyer of their choosing, on the charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh). The Supreme Court upheld the sentence after a rushed review. Rights groups say the sentences were based on confessions extracted under torture. His two co-defendants were executed at dawn on June 1, 2026, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. On May 25 he had been taken out of the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary on the pretext of a transfer to Ghezel Hesar, and for some time afterward his condition and whereabouts were unknown. Amnesty International later reported that he is held in Ghezel Hesar Prison and remains at imminent risk of execution.