Political prisoner Warisha Moradi, a member of the Rojhilat Free Women's Community (KJAR), was sentenced to death by the 15th Branch of the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of "treason." According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Moradi’s lawyers were notified on Sunday of the death sentence handed over to her client. The hearings for the trial were held on 16 June and 5 October 2024. Judge Abolqasem Salavati, who presided over the court, did not allow Moradi to defend herself during the hearings. He did not even allow her lawyers to defend her. In addition, the lawyers, who were previously denied the right to review the case, were only able to review their client's case for a few hours after the end of the second hearing.

Warisha Moradi (alternative spelling Varishe or Warisheh), also known as Ciwana Sine, was arrested on 1 August 2023 during a police check near her hometown of Sine (Sanandaj) and was initially the victim of a forced disappearance. The Kurdish woman is a member of the "Community of Free Women of Rojhilat" (KJAR), the umbrella organization of the Kurdish women's movement in East Kurdistan and Iran, and was committed to women's and feminist issues. Iran's regime judiciary sees the KJAR as a "separatist terrorist organization" because it is part of the Free Life in Kurdistan Party (PJAK). The PJAK resists the oppression and discrimination of the Kurdish people and advocates for women's liberation, autonomy and democracy in Iran.

Brutally tortured, abused and interrogated

After Moradi's abduction, her whereabouts were unclear for months. It was only through research by the French-based human rights organization Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that it became known that the activist had been brutally tortured, mistreated and interrogated by the Iranian Secret Service in Sine for weeks after her arrest, until she was transferred to Tehran at the end of August last year. There she was held for months in the notorious high-security wing 209 of Evin prison - also subjected to torture and mistreatment, with the aim of breaking her or forcing her to confess. Moradi has been in the women's section of the prison since the beginning of January. She has been denied access to legal counsel for most of the time. The KHRN and other human rights groups described the trial against the activist as grossly unfair. It lasted only a few minutes; Moradi was not allowed to defend herself and her lawyers were not given access to the files. On hunger strike against the death penalty

In October, Warisha Moradi went on a hunger strike lasting almost three weeks to protest against the inhumane conditions in the Iranian regime's prisons and the death penalty. Only after numerous appeals from the KJAR as well as NGOs and civil rights activists, women's rights activists and other human rights defenders did she end the action. During the hunger strike, the 38-year-old's condition was at times life-threatening due to her already poor health and the torture she had suffered in custody. According to KJAR, she could have collapsed, fallen into a coma or died at any time. Her lawyers have announced that they will take action against the death sentence against Warisha Moradi and force an appeal.