Haunting final execution insult to family of Iran clothes shop owner aged 26

 Erfan Sultani, 26, faces execution by hanging after being arrested during a wave of anti-government protests and swiftly sentenced to death by a court in Iran.

Erfan, a resident of Fardis near Tehran, was detained on January 8 during demonstrations that have gripped Iran since late December 2025. He was charged with moharebeh - "waging war against God" - a capital offence under Iranian law frequently applied against perceived threats to the state.

His family reportedly waited days to find out what had happened to him, only to be informed that he had been sentenced to death and they would be allowed only a 10-minute goodbye. Human rights groups have raised alarm over the rapidity of the process and the practice has been widely condemned by human rights organisations for lacking due process.

Reports indicate Erfan may have been denied legal counsel, and that his licensed lawyer was prevented from accessing his case file. The date of his death was set for today, January 14, and as the countdown cruelly approaches, the psychological impact on Erfan and his loved ones will be immeasurable.

And criminal psychologist Alex Iszatt tells the Mirror, that prosecutors design the system in a bid to inflict maximum harm and terror on those arrested and their loved ones.

"Being told you will be killed within hours, following a sham legal process, creates a psychological double trauma," Alex says. "The brain has no time to adapt from the initial trauma of arrest to the reality of being told you will die, and this abruptness can force it into an extreme survival state, swinging between acute hyper-anxiety and profound dissociation."

Ms Iszatt explains that in such moments, sufferers can oscillate between fear of pain and the unknown and emotional numbness, where the mind detaches as a protective mechanism against overwhelming terror. This kind of abrupt psychological shock leaves no space for gradual emotional processing.

The brutality of enforced very brief farewells - often monitored and scripted - makes this trauma only more intense for Erfan and his family. "The specific cruelty of the farewell call intensifies this trauma further; the call is short and monitored and strips both him and his family of any real or authentic final moments or truths," Alex says, highlighting the impossible emotional balancing act those final minutes demand.

Rather than offering closure, the final monitored interaction often becomes a frozen image - a last memory of forced calm or visible distress that family members are left endlessly replaying in their minds. And the suddenness of the announcement and the lack of control over nearly every aspect of the case has become another source of anguish.

"For the family, the suddenness is also a psychological weapon, a power play by the state," Alex explains. "It reinforces their complete lack of control while simultaneously signalling that the same fate could happen to others."

"This behaviour is a recognised tool of political terror, designed not only to break the individual's sense of self but to project power outward," Iszatt says. "The psychological suffering inflicted forms a central part of the punishment itself rather than an unintended consequence."

Across Iran and around the world, Erfan's impending execution has drawn intense outrage. Rights organisations describe his sentence as a stark example of how the state is weaponising its justice system to suppress dissent amid an intensifying crackdown.

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran that America will take "very strong action" if Iran executes protestors. Unrest that began with shopkeepers taking to the streets of Tehran more than two weeks ago has spiralled, with more than 2,400 protesters estimated by one human rights group to have been killed in a government crackdown.

Originally, demonstrations beginning on 28 December were over a sharp fall in the value of the Iranian currency, but broadened into anti-government protests calling for an end to the rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Protests now seem to be slowing down, while the internet has also been shut off, according to sources. Several European countries - including France, Spain, Finland, Belgium and Germany - have summoned Iranian ambassadors over the violence. The UK has also done so, citing the "brutal killing of Iranian protesters".