Iran's Supreme Court ordered a retrial of labor rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, who had been sentenced to death for treason, local media reported Oct. 12. The order lifts her death sentence while she awaits a retrial. In the conviction handed down by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Rasht, Mohammadi's alleged membership in the National Labor Unions Assistance Coordination Committee (LUACC) was included as evidence—despite the fact that LUACC is a legally established independent labor organization in Iran. Mohammadi claimed that she had not been a member of LUACC for 10 years.

As a member of the International Labor Organization, a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Iran is obliged to guarantee the right to form trade unions and to strike.

Mohammadi was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in July. She was first arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in December 2023 and convicted for "armed rebellion against the state" based on allegations that she was a member of the banned Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KPIK). Mohammadi denied allegations that she was ever a member of KPIK.

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), the Islamic Revolutionary Court uses "national security-related charges to punish and suppress peaceful dissent." The Revolutionary Court's jurisdiction under Article 303 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is broad and can include political crimes.

According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), at least 811 people were executed in Iran between October 10, 2023 and October 8, 2024. Inmates in over 20 Iranian prisons have been staging protests, including hunger strikes, against capital punishment for several months.

A Campaign for the Defense of Sharifeh Mohammadi has been founded, with human rights defenders, including former political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh, announcing their intention to begin a hunger strike if Mohammadi's death sentence is not overturned.

From Jurist, Oct. 14. Used with permission.