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Naqadeh executes two Kurdish PDKI prisoners

4 min read
10:43UTC

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.

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Different Perspectives
European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The ECB's digital euro pilot drew more than 50 PSP applications and is naming 10 to 30 participants in July, advancing on its own monetary mandate without requiring a Commission act. Its trajectory this week is the inverse of CAIDA's: the sovereignty instrument that restricts no US firm is the only one keeping its published calendar.
United States (Ambassador Andrew Puzder / Steptoe LLP)
United States (Ambassador Andrew Puzder / Steptoe LLP)
Puzder named CAIDA a red line inconsistent with the EU-US trade framework on 25 May; Steptoe warns US firms spend up to USD 50bn a year on DMA and DSA compliance and that CAIDA's Buy European tilt threatens the Turnberry truce. The Google fine delay is read in Washington as evidence that Commission enforcement bends to diplomatic pressure.
France (G7 chair and Mistral AI)
France (G7 chair and Mistral AI)
France chaired the 29 May G7 Bercy ministerial and produced a communique that omitted cloud sovereignty entirely, while its national AI champion Mistral won five-year Airbus and BMW engineering contracts commercially the day before. Paris is advancing sovereignty through the market and retreating on it at every multilateral table.
Germany (federal government)
Germany (federal government)
Berlin maintained College silence that forced CAIDA's scope to public-sector tenders, protecting the automotive sector from a US Section 301 claim while simultaneously allowing BMW to contract Mistral for safety-critical crash-simulation work. German corporate procurement and German trade policy are running in opposite directions.
Netherlands (minister Willemijn Aerdts)
Netherlands (minister Willemijn Aerdts)
Aerdts blocked Kyndryl's EUR 100m Solvinity acquisition on 26 May, the first US deal ever stopped under Dutch screening, on the specific ground that the US CLOUD Act could compel disclosure of DigiD and MijnOverheid data. The decision is a direct demonstration that national screening achieves CAIDA's public-sector objective without waiting for EU law.
European Commission
European Commission
The Commission is presenting CAIDA adoption on its fourth scheduled date as a sovereignty milestone, with Henna Virkkunen due to brief the Telecom Council on 9 June. The narrowed public-sector-only scope is the concession written in to secure adoption; whether the Commission presents it as a floor or a ceiling for future revision is the open question.