Until January, there was little in the public sphere to distinguish Leila Abolhasani or bring her to the attention of anyone outside Shahin Shahr, a city north of Isfahan in central Iran.
The 43-year-old worked in nail and beauty services and was raising two teenage daughters. Like so many others who took to the streets in January, there is no indication in the available reporting that she was a prominent opposition activist or dissident.
Yet, more than seven months after she was arrested during the nationwide protests that swept Iran in January, Abolhasani is sitting in Dowlatabad Prison in Isfahan with a death sentence hanging over her.
Her case is now before Iran's Supreme Court, and if her appeal fails, she could be executed.
Abolhasani accused of setting supermarket on fire
The events that brought Abolhasani there began on the evening of January 8, when demonstrations were underway in Shahin Shahr amid the wider unrest spreading across the country.
According to a source close to her family who spoke to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Abolhasani was near a branch of the Ofogh Kourosh supermarket chain that was on fire and began filming the scene. Security forces subsequently arrested her and accused her of having participated in setting the store alight.
Her relatives deny that allegation and maintain that she was documenting a fire that was already burning. The state disagreed.
Neither the text of the judgment nor the evidence the court relied on has been published, and details of any video footage, witness testimony, or forensic evidence allegedly linking Abolhasani to the fire remain unknown. IranWire reported that details concerning the conduct of her trial and legal defense have likewise not been made public.
Following her arrest, Abolhasani was taken to Dowlatabad Prison, where she has remained ever since. Her case eventually reached Branch 5 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court and Judge Vahid Hemmatnejad, who heard it in late May.
The charge was moharebeh (“enmity against God”), one of the Islamic Republic's most serious offenses. According to one Iranian human-rights organization that reported details of the judgment, the court convicted Abolhasani of moharebeh for committing arson and setting fire to public property. The same organization reported that restrictions under Note to Article 48 of Iran's Code of Criminal Procedure prevented her from choosing her own lawyer during the investigative stage.
Hemmatnejad sentenced her to death, in what is part of a continuing crackdown against protesters since January. Rights groups have documented that between 500 and 1,000 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2026, including protesters.
Legal questions regarding Abolhasani's charge remain unresolved
There is also an unresolved legal question surrounding the charge itself. Article 279 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code defines moharebeh in terms of drawing a weapon against people's lives, property, or chastity, or doing so in a manner that creates public fear and insecurity. Article 282 provides four possible punishments, including death by hanging.
None of the public accounts of Abolhasani's case have alleged that she was armed.
Hemmatnejad, meanwhile, has become a familiar name in Iranian political cases in recent months.
Before handling political and national-security cases, according to IranWire, he presided over drug cases and handed down death sentences to numerous defendants. More recently, he has been associated with severe sentences against protesters and political prisoners.
On January 8, Abolhasani was a 43-year-old beautician and mother of two who, according to her family, stood beside a burning supermarket and took out her phone to record what was happening. The Islamic Republic says she was an arsonist and convicted her of waging war against God.
Seven months later, the evidence that persuaded a Revolutionary Court of that charge remains hidden from public view, while Abolhasani waits in an Isfahan prison for the Supreme Court to decide whether she will live or die. The US State Department has requested independent review of the evidence and consideration of suspension and/or debarment.