HRANA – Branch 13 of Tehran Province Criminal Court One has issued new verdicts for six defendants in the case known as “Ekbatan Town.” According to the ruling, Milad Armoun, Alireza Kafaei, and Amir Mohammad Khosh-Eghbal were each sentenced to imprisonment and payment of diyah (blood money) on charges of participation in murder. Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati, and Alireza Barmarz Pournak were acquitted of the same charge. Their death sentences had previously been overturned by the Supreme Court.
According to HRANA, new verdicts have been issued for the defendants in the so-called “Ekbatan Town” case by Branch 13 of Tehran Province Criminal Court One.
Under the issued ruling, Milad Armoun, Alireza Kafaei, and Amir Mohammad Khosh-Eghbal were each sentenced to five years in prison and payment of an equal share of the full diyah for one person after being convicted of participation in intentional murder. Meanwhile, the three other defendants in the case, Alireza Barmarz Pournak, Hossein Nemati, and Navid Najaran, were acquitted of participation in intentional murder due to lack of evidence proving they inflicted blows on a specific part of Arman Aliverdi’s body.
The verdict was issued on February 4, 2025, and was formally communicated to the defendants’ lawyers yesterday.
In November 2024, these individuals had each been sentenced to death by Branch 13 of Tehran Criminal Court. In September 2025, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentences and referred the case back to Branch 13 for retrial. Ultimately, on December 3 of that year, a new hearing was held in the same branch.
The case involving Milad Armoun, Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini, Mehdi Imani, and Navid Najjaran, designated as confidential, had been returned in late April 2024 from Branch 13 of Tehran Province Criminal Court One to Branch Four of the Prosecutor’s Office for Criminal Affairs in Tehran’s District 27 to address deficiencies and objections in the case. In early September that year, after the deficiencies were addressed, the case was referred back to Branch 13 of Tehran Criminal Court One and Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.
Four of the defendants , Nemati, Barmarz Pournak, Kafaei, and Khosh-Eghbal, were released from Ghezel Hesar Prison on bail in February 2024.
In late October 2023, after four court sessions were held, the court did not return the case to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation. Instead, Branch 13 of Tehran Criminal Court One intervened to conduct supplementary investigations, expedite proceedings, and determine the defendants’ status. Another part of the case was referred to Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court.
In May 2023, the spokesperson for Iran’s Judiciary announced that three defendants in the “murder of Arman Aliverdi” case had been charged with “enmity against God (moharebeh) through the use of cold weapons and acting against national security.” According to the indictment, these individuals were charged with “moharebeh,” “participation in intentional murder,” and “disrupting public order and peace.”
Previously, an informed source had told HRANA regarding the “Ekbatan Town” case: “The case has been divided into two sections. One section was referred to Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, and the other to Branch 13 of Tehran Criminal Court One. So far, no verdict has been issued for those defendants whose cases in the Revolutionary Court involve security-related charges and moharebeh.”
In early November 2022, during nationwide protests and following the killing of a Basij member named Arman Aliverdi in Ekbatan Town, at least 50 young residents of the area were arrested by security and law enforcement forces. Indictments were ultimately issued against 14 of them.
