Iran Sentences 20-Year-Old Taraneh Rahimi to Death, Jails Twin for 36 Years
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 15
Iran Sentences 20-Year-Old Taraneh Rahimi to Death, Jails Twin for 36 Years
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 15
Summary
Taraneh Rahimi, 20, received a death sentence plus 11 years in prison over January anti-regime protests in Isfahan, while her twin sister Romina was sentenced to 36 years.
HRANA said the sisters are among 16 defendants in the Shohada Square case, where 10 people drew death sentences and the group collectively received 256 years in prison.
Family members say both were seized in a nighttime raid, held in solitary confinement and tortured into confessions; Taraneh told the court her admissions were extracted under abuse, and rights groups said they verified the allegations.
Defense lawyers reportedly lacked access to key case files, another defendant alleged torture with an electric stun gun, and the verdicts remain at the initial stage.
The case lands amid a wider crackdown: the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center recorded 901 executions in Iran in the first seven months of 2026, including 56 on political or national-security charges.
With secret prison trials and forced confessions, is Tehran's execution surge a display of absolute power or desperate fragility?
Why would a regime sentence a 20-year-old girl to death for protesting without a single murder charge?
How does a nation heal when its government uses torture and the threat of execution to silence a generation of young women?
256 Years and 10 Death Sentences: The Isfahan Shohada Square Case, the Rahimi Twins, and Iran’s Escalating Judicial Repression
Overview
The report traces how the December 2025 protests in Tehran quickly spread nationwide, peaking in Isfahan in January 2026, where unrest led to deaths near Shohada Square. In response, authorities launched a harsh crackdown, arresting ordinary citizens like twin sisters Taraneh and Romina Rahimi. The sisters endured severe torture and were forced to sign confessions, which the court used to sentence Taraneh to death and Romina to decades in prison, ignoring clear evidence of their innocence. International outrage followed, but Iran’s judiciary, operating with impunity and silencing families, continues to escalate executions under the guise of national security.