Iran | 23-Year-Old Protester Ali Fahim Hanged; 10 Political Prisoners Executed in 8 Days

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 6 April 2026: State media reported the execution of Ali Fahim, a 23-year-old protester arrested at the 8 January protests in Tehran. He is the fourth defendant in the case to be hanged in five days. His co-defendants Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, Shahab Zohdi and Yaser Rajaifar are at grave and imminent risk of execution.

Condemning Ali Fahim’s execution in the strongest terms, IHRNGO calls on the international community and civil society organisations to react strongly to the daily execution of political prisoners in Iran.

IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated: “These executions are part of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of survival, waging war against its own people under the shadow of external conflict. The international community must respond with urgency. The situation of prisoners and the regime’s systematic use of the death penalty as a political tool of repression must be made a central condition in any negotiations or engagement with the Islamic Republic.”

According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, protester Ali Fahim was hanged at an unspecified location on 6 April 2026. IHRNGO has established the place of his execution as Ghezel Hesar Prison. The official report states that Ali was accused of “participating in operational acts against national security on behalf of the Zionist regime, the United States, and hostile groups and their affiliates, leading to public fear and insecurity” and “entering classified military sites with the intent to remove weapons and ammunition, and with destroying and arson of government property with the aim of opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Ali Fahim, 23, was arrested during the nationwide 8 January protests in Tehran. He was one of the defendants in a case of seven, accused of attacking an IRGC base in Tehran. Ten days after arrest, on 18 January, state media aired the forced confessions of five of the defendants. In the video, they are referred to as “deceived youth” who were “directed by American-Zionist terrorist elements” to attack the IRGC base in Tehran.

The seven defendants were tried by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by “Death Judge” Salavati on 7 February 2026. The next day, the court sentenced seven of the defendants to death on charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) and efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth).

According to an informed source, the defendants did not have access to lawyers and were represented by court-appointed lawyers at trial who later informed them of the sentences. The case was sent to Branch 9 of the Supreme Court, which according to the official report, rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence.

Ali Fahim had reportedly been transferred to the pre-execution solitary confinement cells with Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani who is at grave and imminent risk of execution. The legal status of Shahab Zohdi and Yaser Rajaifar, the remaining two defendants in the case, is not clear.

Ali Fahim is the tenth political prisoner to be executed in the past eight days. Mohammad Taghavi and Shahrokh Daneshvarkar were secretly hanged on 30 March, and their co-defendants Pouya Ghobadi and Babak Alipour were secretly hanged on 31 March.

Ali Fahim’s co-defendant, Amirhossein Hatami, was hanged on 2 April. Vahid Baniamerian and Abolhassan Montazer were secretly hanged on 4 April. Ali Fahim’s two other co-defendants, Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast were hanged on 5 April.

Three other January 2026 protesters Saleh Mohammadi, Saeed Davodi and Mehdi Ghasemi were hanged in Qom on 19 March. A dual-national named Kourosh Keyvani was also hanged for alleged espionage on 18 March.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, April 6, 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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