Iran | Teenage Protester Saleh Mohammadi Sentenced to Public Hanging

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 12 February 2026: Saleh Mohammadi, a teenage protester and wrestler, has been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of a policeman during the 8 January protest in Qom. The court rejected Saleh’s testimony that his confessions were obtained under torture, and ordered for his execution to be carried out publicly at the scene of the alleged crime.

On 4 February, IHRNGO issued a warning that, given the authorities’ systematic use of lethal force, reliance on torture-tainted confessions, disregard for due process and history of hasty and secret executions, detainees faced an escalating risk of mass death sentences, executions and extrajudicial killings.

Commenting on Saleh Mohammadi’s death sentence, IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated: “After the unprecedented mass killing of protesters, Islamic Republic authorities are now seeking to terrorise society through the execution of detained protesters. Saleh’s death sentence marks a dangerous escalation. Coordinated international pressure and public mobilisation can increase the political cost of the planned executions and help save Saleh Mohammadi and the many other protesters at risk.”

The court rejected Saleh’s testimony that his confessions were obtained under torture, and ordered for his execution to be carried out publicly at the scene of the alleged crime.

According to information obtained by IHRNGO, an 18-year-old protester named Saleh Mohammadi was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of a policeman by the Qom Criminal Court on 3 February 2026. Saleh, who is the first defendant in the case, has been accused of entering the fatal blow to the officer of the police special unit with a knife at the protest in Qom on 8 January. His sentence is to be carried out at the scene of the alleged crime in Qom.

Saleh, who is due to turn 19 next month, was arrested on 15 January. He is a wrestler who, according to his Instagram account, won a medal at an international freestyle wrestling competition in Russia in 2024.

Per informed IHRNGO sources, Saleh was forced to make self-incriminating confessions in the investigation phase which he later retracted in court. Despite testifying that he had made the confessions under torture and coercion, the court rejected his claim, relying on the confessions made at the reconstruction of the crime scene and “eyewitness accounts” as evidence of his conviction.

Saleh has twenty days to appeal the decision according to law. However, it is important to note that the statutory twenty-day period for defendants to file an appeal has been breached in prior cases. “Woman, Life, Freedom” protester Majidreza Rahnavard was executed just 23 days after arrest.

Hundreds of others are currently facing death penalty charges in relation to the December 2025/January 2026 nationwide protests. Islamic Republic authorities have also aired the trials of protesters Mohammad Abbasi and Mohammadreza Tabari who were both tried for charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) by the Revolutionary Court. This is while hundreds of confessions obtained under coercion and torture have also been aired.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, February 12, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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