Twin sisters sentenced in Isfahan protest case amid Iran's expanding death penalties

After joining anti-government demonstrations in Isfahan, 19-year-old twins Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were seized by masked men and detained in Dowlatabad Prison, where they reportedly suffered severe bruising, hair loss and solitary confinement. In a trial before Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court, Taraneh was handed a death sentence plus 11 years, and Romina was sentenced to 36 years in prison. Their verdicts are among those in the "Isfahan Shohada Square" case, which includes 16 defendants, ten of whom received death penalties, amounting to a combined 256 years of incarceration.

The family claims the twins were tortured to extract confessions, and they were denied the right to attend the proceedings. The sentences come as Iran records a sharp rise in executions, prompting international human-rights concerns about the regime's expanding death-penalty campaign.