Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Protester Benyamin Naghdi

According to Emtedad, Branch 41 of the Supreme Court of Iran has upheld the death sentence handed down against Benyamin Naghdi. He was sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court in May. The 26-year-old MMA fighter and kickboxer was arrested at a protest in Shiraz on 3 January. Benyamin’s coerced confessions were aired by state media the next day, on 4 January. He was accused of using a fire extinguisher as a makeshift flamethrower, which he used against security forces passing by on motorcycles. 

Benyamin’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told Emtedad: “This ruling was communicated to the lawyers yesterday (29 July). We will submit an application for a retrial soon. Given that no one sustained any injury, we hope that a retrial will be granted to allow the case to be re-examined by a court of equal standing.”

The lawyer previously reported that Benyamin was initially charged with attempted murder, which was subsequently changed to moharebeh (enmity against God). “Following the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, an indictment was issued against him on charges of moharebeh, membership of groups disrupting national security, assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security and propaganda activities against the system. Meanwhile, a non-prosecution order was issued regarding the separate allegations of inflicting bodily injury on officers and possession of a cold weapon,” the lawyer said.

At trial, the judges determined that the sum of these charges collectively amounted to efsad-fil-arz, and issued a death sentence on this basis.