Iran’s Revolutionary Courts have sentenced a Baha’i photojournalist to 26 years in prison and another journalist to 10 years and one day, with both terms tied to a 2025 espionage law, according to IranWire and the rights group HRANA. The sentences add to a crackdown that has brought hundreds of executions, mass arrests and new limits on speech. For more coverage, see our Iran news hub.
Artin Ghazanfari: 26 years
Artin Ghazanfari, a photojournalist held in Greater Tehran Prison, was sentenced by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati. HRANA reported that the verdict was formally served on Monday. A source close to his family said the sentence included 20 years for “media activity,” five years for “assembly and collusion” and one year for “propaganda against the system.” According to the same source, the judge invoked the Law on Severe Punishment for Espionage to impose the 20-year term. IranWire said the court’s evidence, the appeal status and how much of the sentence is enforceable under Iran’s sentencing-limit rules have not been specified.
IranWire reported that Ghazanfari has heart failure, asthma and high blood pressure. Prison infirmary doctors have said he needs treatment at medical centers outside the prison, but the case judge has refused to transfer him. On September 17, IranWire quoted a family source who said the prison surgeon and an internal-medicine specialist considered hospitalization and surgery urgent. His family’s requests for release on bail for treatment have been unsuccessful. Security agents arrested him at his Tehran home on January 19 and seized electronic devices, books and professional equipment from his home and workplace.
Omid Faraghat: 10 years and one day
The second journalist, Omid Faraghat, is held at Karaj Central Penitentiary. He was arrested on June 29 after a summons to the Karaj Security Police, and his initial charges were “disturbing public opinion” and “acting against national security,” IranWire reported. According to the Telegram channel Khabaraneh, run by activist and former political prisoner Mehdi Mahmoudian, his sentence was issued under Article 4 of the espionage law; that account has not been independently confirmed. In August, Faraghat wrote an open letter from prison to judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, criticizing the security apparatus’s crackdown on journalists and saying he was jailed solely for addressing the country’s crises and criticizing official performance, IranWire reported. The issuing court, the specific offenses and the status of any appeal have not been disclosed.
A law built for wartime
Parliament passed the espionage law on September 28, 2025. Article 4 sets prison terms and a permanent ban from government and public service for political, cultural, media or content-publishing activity deemed to cause “public panic” or to act “against national security.”
Lawmakers are also weighing more restrictions. Al Jazeera reported on October 26 that parliament is considering a law to criminalize interviews with foreign media. A parliamentary committee is reviewing a Cyberspace Regulation Bill whose text it has declined to release. “A decision has been made not to publicize the details,” committee spokesman Rouhollah Abbaspour said, according to Iran International. An unofficial draft circulating would let unnamed “competent bodies” cut internet access; lawyer Kambiz Norouzi called that provision unconstitutional in the newspaper Shargh. A committee member said the version under review differs from the leaked draft. Our earlier report covered Iran’s 40% internet price increase.
The Guards’ hand in the crackdown
Neither court ruling names the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the arresting agency. But rights groups say the Guards’ intelligence arm is directly involved in detentions elsewhere. The Kurdish rights group Hengaw documented at least 143 arrests by security forces in September, including 17 women activists and nine children. Kurds made up 70 of those detained.
Hengaw attributes individual cases to IRGC Intelligence, an attribution that has not been independently verified. One is Niloufar Haghi Bouzhani, 22, who Hengaw says was taken from her family home in Kermanshah on October 7 without a warrant. Another is Seyed Ahmad Mostafanejad, a 40-year-old Kurdish man detained on October 14 after reporting to the IRGC intelligence office in Piranshahr when summoned by phone. Hengaw says his whereabouts have not been disclosed and he has been denied a lawyer and contact with his family.
The Guards are also leading a return of street enforcement of the mandatory hijab. IranWire reported that IRGC commanders in North Khorasan and Mazandaran announced plans to reorganize hijab enforcement units with “civilian mobilization forces” and citizen reporting. That comes even though an Interior Ministry spokesman said on August 9 that the 2024 Chastity and Hijab law remains suspended. On September 28, Mohseni-Ejei urged officials to “decisively confront nudity” and issued orders to the Prosecutor General, IranWire reported.
The execution toll
The prison sentences come amid an execution surge that rights groups say is largely hidden. Iran Human Rights counted at least 617 executions from January 1 to October 10. Thirty-two of those executed were protesters, part of 78 executions on national-security charges, and only 91, under 15%, were announced by official sources. Earlier TBR coverage looked at executions and the IRGC.
Amnesty International said on October 16 that at least 34 people had been executed in connection with the January 2026 uprising after “torture-tainted unfair trials,” and that since April the Supreme Court had upheld death sentences against at least 20 more. The Guardian reported that mountaineer Ali-Sina Mostafavi, arrested in April after the protests, was executed on October 14. Authorities accused him of opening fire on civilians in Azadi Square in Kerman on March 24, the Guardian reported; that charge has not been independently verified. His sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court at the end of September. Human Rights for Sport told the Guardian that at least six more athletes face execution.
Iranian authorities have not publicly responded to the Ghazanfari or Faraghat sentences. The country is at war with the United States and Israel, whose strikes killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28, AFP reported.
What comes next
No appeal hearings have been announced for either journalist, and IranWire said the appeal status in both cases has not been disclosed. Rights groups are watching the at least 20 protest-related death sentences that Amnesty says the Supreme Court has upheld. Parliament’s handling of the foreign-media bill and the unreleased cyberspace bill will show how far the state plans to widen the security laws used against Ghazanfari and Faraghat.
Editor’s note on sourcing: The breakdown of Ghazanfari’s sentence comes from a single source close to his family, as reported by HRANA and IranWire. The legal basis for Faraghat’s sentence comes from the Telegram channel Khabaraneh, via IranWire. Neither verdict has been published by Iran’s judiciary. Hengaw’s attribution of two arrests to IRGC Intelligence and the authorities’ charge against Mostafavi have not been independently verified. No Iranian state media were used.
Sources
- IranWire: Baha’i Photojournalist Sentenced to 26 Years in Prison (Oct. 28, 2026)
- IranWire: Iranian Journalist Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison (Oct. 28, 2026)
- Iran Human Rights: At Least 617 Executed in Iran (Oct. 10, 2026)
- Amnesty International: Risk of Imminent Protest-Related Executions (Oct. 16, 2026)
- The Guardian: Fears grow for Iranian athletes on death row (Oct. 27, 2026)
- Al Jazeera (Oct. 26, 2026)
- Iran International on the Cyberspace Regulation Bill (Oct. 28, 2026)
- Hengaw: September 2026 arrests report
- IranWire on IRGC-led hijab enforcement
- AFP via Arab News (Oct. 27, 2026)
Additional sources
- UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran
- U.S. State Department: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Iran
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