Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
European Energy Markets
27JUL

Naqadeh executes two Kurdish PDKI prisoners

4 min read
09:24UTC

Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour were executed at dawn on 21 May at Naqadeh Central Prison on armed-rebellion charges via PDKI membership, the day Amnesty International's 2026 Iran execution register passed 200 against the 2,159 recorded in 2025.

← Back to Wind, not peace, sank the German sparkJump to analysis ↓
EconomicDeveloping
Key takeaway

Iran's wartime judicial pipeline is running ahead of the 2025 global record, on widening geography and parallel charge architectures.

Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour, both linked to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), were executed at dawn on Thursday 21 May at Naqadeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan without prior notice to their families 1. Zaleh had been held since July 2024; Maroufpour, aged 29, had been held since March 2021. Both were charged with "armed rebellion" via PDKI membership. Hengaw, the Norway-based Kurdish rights monitor, recorded that Zaleh's trial had lasted "only a few minutes". Mizan, the Iranian judiciary's news agency, added "attempted assassination" to the published charge sheet.

The PDKI link matters for the wartime register. Membership of the party, banned in Iran since 1979, is treated by Iranian courts as standing evidence of armed rebellion regardless of whether specific acts are alleged. Hengaw and other Kurdish-focused monitors say convictions in these cases routinely rest on confessions extracted in prolonged solitary detention. A trial of "only a few minutes" is consistent with that pattern: the substantive question is settled before the courtroom proceeds.

Amnesty International placed Iran's 2026 executions above 200 in mid-May, against the 2,159 executed in 2025, the global high 2. The 2025 figure averaged roughly 180 per month; 2026 is running ahead. The geography is widening too: the foreign-national execution track opened in Karaj on 20 May with two Iraqi nationals on espionage charges , and Thursday's PDKI cases extend the wartime pipeline into the Kurdish northwest on political-charge architecture rather than espionage.

Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, a Turkish national and former mixed martial arts champion, remains at Ghezel Hesar Prison at imminent execution risk . Hengaw reported him transferred to solitary on 22 May. The pattern across Naqadeh, Karaj and Ghezel Hesar is one of parallel charge tracks running concurrently rather than a single uniform escalation: armed-rebellion convictions in Kurdish-majority provinces, espionage convictions against foreign nationals, and detention transfers that precede the dawn execution slot. The wartime judicial pipeline is on a pace to exceed the 2025 record if it holds.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Two Kurdish men, Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour, were executed at dawn on 21 May at a prison in Naqadeh, a city in the Kurdish northwest of Iran. Both were members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a political party that has been banned in Iran since 1979. In Iran, membership of that party is treated by courts as evidence of armed rebellion against the state; a charge that carries the death penalty. A Norwegian-based human rights group called Hengaw documented that Zaleh's trial lasted only a few minutes. By mid-May, Iran had already executed more than 200 people in 2026. In 2025, it executed 2,159; the highest number of any country in the world that year. The 2026 pace is running ahead of that record if it continues. What makes this significant beyond the individual cases: Iran is now running executions on political charges in Kurdish-majority provinces at the same time as executing foreign nationals on espionage charges. These are two separate legal tracks running simultaneously, suggesting a broader wartime judicial acceleration.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, a Turkish national held at Ghezel Hesar, faces execution on espionage charges at a moment when Ankara is absorbed by the CHP constitutional crisis. The Naqadeh executions signal that Iran is processing the wartime pipeline on its own calendar regardless of the diplomatic consequences for mediating states.

  • Consequence

    Amnesty International's 2026 Iran execution register passing 200 in mid-May, against 2025's record 2,159, will sharpen European Parliament pressure on EU member states' Iran policy. The register pace is on track to approach or exceed the 2025 record, which would complicate any EU-mediated elements of a potential nuclear settlement.

Sources:Euronews·HRANA
Mentions:Amnesty International →Ramin Zaleh →Karim Maroufpour →Naqadeh Central Prison →Democratic Party →Mizan →Iran →Gholamreza Khani Shakarab →Qezel Hesar Prison →HRANA →Euronews →Karaj →Iran Human Rights →Norway →West Azerbaijan →Kurdistan →Hengaw →
First Reported In

Update #105 · Khamenei keeps the uranium; House pulls the vote

Euronews· 22 May 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Naqadeh dual, two Iraqis, a Turk at risk
The 20 May execution of two Iraqi nationals on espionage charges (ID:3497) established the foreign-national execution track; the Naqadeh executions of Zaleh and Maroufpour extend it to PDKI-linked Kurdish prisoners.
Occurred 21 May 2026
Read story →
This Event
Naqadeh executes two Kurdish PDKI prisoners
The wartime execution track now widens beyond the foreign-national espionage cluster into PDKI-linked political charges in the Kurdish northwest.
Led to
Turkish court annuls CHP leadership vote
The CHP leadership annulment on 21 May (event 7) removes Turkey's diplomatic bandwidth for the Shakarab demarche that the Naqadeh execution pattern (event 6) makes more urgent.
Occurred 21 May 2026
Read story →
Iran hangs its first wartime spy
Naqadeh executions (ID:3573) established the wartime judicial register that the Kian case extends at a faster arrest-to-execution pace.
Occurred 24 May 2026
Read story →
Iran hangs a 15th uprising protester
The Amnesty 200+ execution register (ID:3573) is the running total against which Akbari Feyzabadi's execution as the 15th January-uprising case is placed.
Occurred 25 May 2026
Read story →
Iran hangs Turkish national, toll rises
Amnesty register passed 200 (ID:3573); the 26-27 May cluster of 6 executions and 1 shooting extends this milestone run.
Occurred 26 May 2026
Read story →
Amnesty: 39 executions since war began
Amnesty's 28 May 39-execution tally builds on the execution register that had already passed 200 for 2026 by mid-May, covering the same wartime political category.
Occurred 28 May 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Slovakia
Slovakia
Slovakia says it dropped its hold-out on the 21st sanctions package only after Ursula von der Leyen personally signed written gas-price and supply guarantees. The Council of the European Union's own 17,238-character release on the package names neither Slovakia nor any guarantee, leaving Bratislava's account unconfirmed by the institutional record.
EU regulator on capacity mechanisms
EU regulator on capacity mechanisms
Brussels is watching Germany's StromVKG first 4.5 GW capacity auction move toward its 8 September bid deadline without a resolved state-aid clearance for the 9 GW 2026 programme's gas-plant subsidies. A negative spark spread this deep on cheap gas strengthens the case for subsidised dispatchable capacity, the same case still awaiting a state-aid ruling.
French power exporters
French power exporters
French day-ahead cleared EUR 41.13/MWh on Sunday 26 July, EUR 43.09 below Germany, on wind more than doubling and a demand trough, not on any nuclear recovery. The desk expects the discount to hold only as long as French wind and weekend demand repeat, not as a durable nuclear-cost advantage.
European gas storage operator
European gas storage operator
A storage operator stopped bidding for prompt TTF cargoes on 21 July, reading the strike-halt unwind as the start of a fuel-side correction rather than a floor. It expects the gap between prompt and forward gas to keep narrowing as the war premium continues leaving the curve.
German gas-fired power fleet
German gas-fired power fleet
German gas-fired plants cut output from 4.37 GW to 2.85 GW between 24 and 27 July, even as TTF fell 8 per cent, because below roughly minus EUR 40/MWh the fuel price stopped deciding dispatch. The fleet expects no relief until wind eases or StromVKG's first 4.5 GW auction adds capacity.
French industrial power consumers
French industrial power consumers
France's day-ahead discount to Germany has nearly closed as TTF and EUA rise together on both sides of the border, eroding the arbitrage French industry relied on through the summer. A standing negative spark removes the German demand buffer that kept that spread wide.