Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits.

An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

The gallows was erected in the square where protests broke out on Jan. 8. Twelve young men convicted in what has become known as the "Ali-Khani Square case" were sentenced to death. Two of them, Erfan Esfandiyari, who was reportedly 18, and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, a 23-year-old Afghan national, were executed on July 19.

Iranian authorities accuse the defendants of involvement in the killing of four members of the security forces, as well as arson and vandalism during the protests. Human rights organizations, however, say the defendants were denied a fair trial and access to independent legal representation.

An estimated 100 protesters and political prisoners have been sentenced to death, while hundreds more face charges carrying the death penalty. More than 70 people are awaiting execution.

A source close to the family of Amirhossein Safari, one of the 10 remaining defendants being held on death row, said his relatives had been summoned to Isfahan Central Prison for what may be a final visit. Iranian activist Mehdi Mahmoudian said the families of other prisoners had received similar instructions. He said cousins Alireza Sepahi and Abolfazl Sepahi were in immediate danger of execution.

UN experts called on the Iranian authorities to stop the sentences from being carried out. They said 12 people had been sentenced to death in a single closed-door hearing, without the individual responsibility of each defendant being established. The experts also said the convictions had relied heavily on confessions broadcast on state television and that some of the defendants had been abused after their arrest.

Among those sentenced to death is Shervin Bagherian Jebeli, who had turned 18 only days before his arrest. Iranian television broadcast footage of him confessing to violence against members of the security forces within a week of his detention and before his trial had taken place. According to the UN experts, he appeared not to understand the meaning of the offense with which he had been charged, "moharebeh," or "waging war against God," and was not given access to a lawyer of his choosing.

Fears of further executions have intensified amid claims by human rights groups that the regime is exploiting the war with the US and the regional escalation to accelerate punishment of protesters and political prisoners while global attention is focused elsewhere.

PHOTO: 10 Young January Protesters Face Imminent Execution in Iran

According to multiple sources, 10 young men in the so-called “Alikhani Square” case in Isfahan are at serious risk of imminent execution. Some reports speak of final family visits. Reports mention preparations for a public hanging in Alikhani Square.

Last week Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi and Erfan Esfandiari were executed in the same case.

The 10 at risk:

• Alireza Sepahi, 24

• Abolfazl Sepahi, 23

• Ghaem Hosseini, 20

• Shervin Bagherian, 18

• Amirhossein Safari, 27

• Amirhossein Maleki, 19

• Ali Dashti, 19

• Abolfazl Ebrahimi, 18

• Alireza Raeisi, 21

• Amirhossein Ebrahimi Analucheh, 19

An estimated 100 protesters and political prisoners have been sentenced to death, while hundreds more face charges carrying the death penalty. More than 70 people are awaiting execution at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan. Iran Human Rights said at least 24 people had been executed since March 19 over their involvement in the January protests.

Iran executed 109 people in June alone, including three women, a 10% increase compared with the same month last year, according to figures published by ARTICLE 19. Only seven of the executions were officially announced, and at least 12 families received no advance warning.

Human rights activists say the executions are intended to deter the public from returning to the streets and to project strength to the regime's supporters. They warn, however, that repression will not resolve the economic hardship and political dissatisfaction fueling the protests. "You cannot kill your way out of economic hardship and discontent," said Shahin Milani, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

Source: israelhayom.com, Staff, July 28, 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

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

Comments

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds. Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments. On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection. Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences. Others have had to b...

Idaho | Death row prisoners sue over state's new firing squad

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a 24-year-old man for murders he committed when he was a minor raises questions about the lay judge trial system and capital punishment. These include whether the lay judges correctly understood the spirit of the Juvenile Law in sentencing the defendant to death. It was the 1st death sentence handed down on a minor in a lay judge trial. The murders took place in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2010 when Yutaro Chiba was 18 - meaning he fell under the purview of the Juvenile Law. Chiba was convicted of entering his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing to death the girl's sister and a female friend of the girl with a butcher knife, seriously injuring a male friend of the sister and abducting the girl. Prosecutors said Chiba killed the victims because they were trying to separate him and his former girlfriend. Since Chiba pleaded n...

Florida executes Dennis Sochor

Man, 74, becomes oldest inmate executed in Florida in state’s 10th lethal injection this year Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was 1 of 3 older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state. Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He was convicted of killing a woman on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog