The Iranian news website Emtedad and the U.S.-based human rights organization HRANA reported on Wednesday, May 20, that a court in Tehran had issued new rulings regarding defendants in the case known as the “Ekbatan case,” under which three of them were acquitted.
According to the new ruling, three other defendants arrested during the 2022 protests were sentenced to pay financial compensation (blood money/diyah) and serve five years in prison.
All six defendants had previously been sentenced to death for allegedly being involved in the killing of Arman Aliverdi, a member of the Basij forces. However, Iran’s Supreme Court later overturned those death sentences.
According to the ruling issued by Branch One of Tehran Province Criminal Court, Milad Armoon, Alireza Kafaei, and Amirmohammad Khosh-Eghbal were each convicted on charges of “participation in intentional murder” and sentenced to pay equal shares of the full blood compensation for one person and serve five years in prison.
HRANA stated that the ruling for the defendants in the “Ekbatan case” had originally been issued on February 3, 2025, but was formally communicated to the defendants on the previous Tuesday.
Following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, investigations by Radio Farda reported that defendants in the case had been held in intelligence detention centers operated by the Revolutionary Guards, criminal police facilities, and in one case a military intelligence detention center. According to those reports, they were kept in solitary confinement and complete isolation and were subjected to physical and psychological torture, which allegedly led to confessions against themselves and others.
