Iranian political prisoner Babak Shahbazi faces an imminent risk of execution following a Supreme Court decision to uphold his death sentence, the Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw said on Monday.
Hengaw said Shahbazi, a father of two, was convicted of “spying for Israel” and “corruption on earth” in proceedings it described as “grossly unfair and based on forced confessions extracted under severe torture.” Iranian authorities have not commented on the allegations.
According to Hengaw, parts of the evidence cited in court included casual conversations Shahbazi had with friends, some of whom were also allegedly tortured into implicating him. It said the trial was marked by “contradictions” and a “lack of credible evidence.”
Shahbazi, 44, worked as a cooling and heating systems technician at data centers, including Iran’s telecommunications company, before his arrest in December 2023, Hengaw said. He was initially held in Evin prison.
The group added that additional charges against him — including involvement in smuggling operations, a bombing, and sending a message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — were unsupported by documentary evidence and rested solely on coerced testimony.
Hengaw also alleged that one of the charges in the case targeted Shahbazi’s teenage daughter for “leading protests in 2009,” despite her being only three years old at the time.
Earlier in August, Iran’s judiciary announced that Rouzbeh Vadi, a nuclear scientist and member of the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute under the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had been executed for allegedly spying for Israel.
Vadi, who held a doctorate in reactor engineering, had co‑authored a 2011 research paper with senior Iranian nuclear experts later killed during the June conflict with Israel, according to his Google Scholar profile.
Iran’s Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei recently said that more than 2,000 people had been arrested during and after the 12-day war, some of whom face the death penalty on charges of “organizational collaboration with the enemy.”
Iran Human Rights reported that 21 people were executed during the June conflict period, including six men charged with spying for Israel.
Among earlier executions was Mohammad-Amin Mahdavi-Shayesteh, accused of leading a Mossad-linked cyber group.
“Iranian threat-related activities directed at Canada and its allies are likely to continue in 2025 and may increase depending on developments in the Middle East and the Iranian regime’s own threat perceptions,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in a statement.
The CSIS told The Globe and Mail on Saturday it is actively investigating death threats in Canada linked to the Islamic Republic.
“Given the need to protect our sources, tradecraft and methods, however, we cannot confirm or deny specific investigative details,” said CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert.
The agency’s warning follows an announcement by Iran International that two of its Canada-based journalists were targeted by the Islamic Republic in recent weeks.
"It's very, very intense and very threatening," Adam Baillie, spokesman for Iran International, told The Canadian Press.
"People get all sorts of messages of, 'We know where you live, remember we watch you, remember we know all about you, we know where your family lives.' It's that kind of thing," Baillie said.
UN appeal over threats to journalists
On Tuesday, Iran International filed an urgent appeal with United Nations experts urging them to take action against Iran over serious risks to the lives and safety of their journalists worldwide and relatives inside Iran.
Over the past six weeks, the Iranian authorities have intimidated and threatened 45 journalists and 315 of their family members with death unless they stop working for Iran International by specific deadlines, Iran International said in a statement.
Carlos Nagore Diaz, spokesperson for UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression Irene Khan, said “several UN Special Rapporteurs are considering taking urgent action on the renewed credible threats to life,” but confirmed that “any communications with the Iranian regime are currently confidential.”
In its reply to the UN, Iran’s permanent mission rejected “allegations made about the threats or kidnapping plans” and described Iran International as “an anti-Iranian network” whose operatives “will be dealt with according to the relevant laws.”
UN rapporteurs wrote in May 2024 that intimidation of the channel’s staff “may amount to violations of the sovereignty” of the countries in which they operate.
In March 2023, Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati was stabbed in London. Two Romanian nationals were later charged.
In late June, IRGC forces in Tehran detained the family of another Iran International presenter to pressure them into ending their cooperation with the network.
CSIS’s warning also comes after an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police says it foiled last year. Cotler remains under 24-hour police protection.
Last week, Canada joined Britain, the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark in condemning what they called “a growing number of threats from Iranian intelligence services on their soil,” including collaboration with organized crime networks to target dissidents.