Arman Marefati, the third defendant in the case whose charges were elevated to capital offences at trial, is now at imminent risk of execution.
Since 19 March, at least 17 protesters have been executed in connection with the nationwide January protests, an average rate of one execution every 4.5 days.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, Ashkan Maleki (left photo) and Mehrdad Mohammadinia (right photo), two protesters arrested in connection to the Tehran protests on 9 January, were hanged at an undisclosed location on 1 June 2026.
IHRNGO has established the location of their executions as Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Their executions were carried out secretly, without prior notification to their families, depriving them of last family visits. Ashkan Maleki was a Kurdish minority.
The two protesters were accused of the arson of Jafari Mosque and the Imam Hadi Islamic Seminary in Tehran. On 21 February, state media broadcast excerpts of their trial before an unidentified judge, believed to be the notorious "Death Judge" Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
At trial, the protesters admitted to causing criminal damage through arson, offences that do not meet the criteria for “the most serious crimes” under the Islamic Republic’s international law obligations. An expert estimated the criminal damage to have been approximately 50 billion tomans (around €246,700) and “if the structural foundation of the mosque and seminary requires complete demolition and reconstruction, the cost is estimated at 150 billion tomans.”
However, invoking Article 1 of the “Law on Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and National Interests,” the court sentenced Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia to death and ordered the confiscation of their assets.
The two protesters were accused of the arson of Jafari Mosque and the Imam Hadi Islamic Seminary in Tehran. On 21 February, state media broadcast excerpts of their trial before an unidentified judge, believed to be the notorious "Death Judge" Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
At trial, the protesters admitted to causing criminal damage through arson, offences that do not meet the criteria for “the most serious crimes” under the Islamic Republic’s international law obligations. An expert estimated the criminal damage to have been approximately 50 billion tomans (around €246,700) and “if the structural foundation of the mosque and seminary requires complete demolition and reconstruction, the cost is estimated at 150 billion tomans.”
However, invoking Article 1 of the “Law on Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and National Interests,” the court sentenced Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia to death and ordered the confiscation of their assets.
They were convicted of “complicity in operational actions against national security on behalf of the Zionist regime, the hostile US government, hostile groups, and their affiliates resulting in public terror and insecurity, and trespassing into sacred religious locations to destroy and burn down state, public, and private properties, including a mosque and a seminary, with the intent to oppose the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran during wartime and security emergencies.”
At trial, the charges against the third defendant, Arman Marefati, were elevated from “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against internal national security” to “complicity in operational actions against national security on behalf of Israel, the United States, and hostile groups, as well as the destruction and arson of sacred religious sites.”
He admitted to moving two rubbish bins from further up the street to the front of the mosque. When questioned by the judge about why he burnt down the mosque, Arman stated: “I didn’t burn down the mosque. I only moved two rubbish bins and did absolutely nothing else.”
IHRNGO has been unable to independently verify Arman’s judicial status, but he is assumed to be at imminent risk of execution.
At trial, the charges against the third defendant, Arman Marefati, were elevated from “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against internal national security” to “complicity in operational actions against national security on behalf of Israel, the United States, and hostile groups, as well as the destruction and arson of sacred religious sites.”
He admitted to moving two rubbish bins from further up the street to the front of the mosque. When questioned by the judge about why he burnt down the mosque, Arman stated: “I didn’t burn down the mosque. I only moved two rubbish bins and did absolutely nothing else.”
IHRNGO has been unable to independently verify Arman’s judicial status, but he is assumed to be at imminent risk of execution.
Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, June 1, 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
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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