Iran | Executions in Isfahan, Karaj, Ardabil, Shiraz, Sanandaj

Iranian authorities executed Ghaem Hosseini, also known as Arian, a 20-year-old Afghan national arrested in connection with the January protests, at Isfahan Central Prison. Hosseini was a defendant in the “Isfahan Alikhani Square” case and is the fifth defendant in the case to be executed.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, authorities carried out Hosseini’s execution at dawn on Thursday, August 20, 2026. He was the maternal cousin of Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, another Afghan national and defendant in the same case who was previously executed.

Mizan News Agency, the official news outlet of Iran’s judiciary, reported that Hosseini had been sentenced to death on charges including “waging war against God,” “corruption on earth,” “acting against national security,” and “destruction of public property.”

Hosseini was accused of participating in the events at Alikhani Square in Isfahan on January 8, 2026, during which four members of the Special Unit were killed. He was also accused of damaging the body of one of the officers and taking part in setting fire to a charity center.

Hosseini is the fifth defendant in the case to be executed. Four other defendants, including his maternal cousin Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, were previously executed together.

Executions in Karaj, Isfahan, Ardabil

Davoud Siah Mansouri, Baloch prisoner Abdolbaset Barahouei (Eidouzehi), and Turkish prisoner Farhad Mohebbi have been executed by Iranian authorities in separate cases at prisons in Karaj, Isfahan, and Ardabil.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Siah Mansouri, a 26-year-old Tehran resident, was executed at Qezel Hesar Prison in the early hours of Wednesday, August 19, 2026. He had previously been arrested and sentenced to death on a charge of “premeditated murder.”

Barahouei (Eidouzehi), a 30-year-old Baloch man from Zahedan, was executed the same morning at Isfahan Central Prison. He was arrested in Isfahan in 2018 on drug-related charges and later sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary.

Separately, Mohebbi, a 34-year-old Turkish prisoner who was married and the father of four children, was executed at Ardabil Central Prison in the early hours of Saturday, August 15, 2026. He had been arrested approximately two years earlier on drug-related charges and sentenced to death.

None of the three executions have been announced by Iran’s state media or judiciary-affiliated outlets.

Executions in Shiraz

At least two prisoners, Mohammad Ali Pazireh and Hassan Kordi, were executed in Shiraz Central Prison (Adelabad Prison) after being sentenced to death in separate cases on charges of “premeditated murder.”

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions were carried out in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026. Pazireh was from Marvdasht.

Informed sources told Hengaw that both men had previously been sentenced to qisas (retribution in kind) by the Iranian judiciary in separate cases on charges of “premeditated murder.”

The executions of the two prisoners have not been announced by Iran’s state media or judiciary-affiliated outlets.

Execution in Sanandaj

Kaveh Rafoosheh, a 35-year-old Kurdish man from Sanandaj (Sine), was executed in the city’s Central Prison despite a public protest outside the facility the previous night, where residents and civil society activists called for the execution to be halted.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Rafoosheh was executed in the early hours of Tuesday, August 18, 2026. He had been transferred to solitary confinement on Sunday, August 16, in preparation for the execution.

Informed sources told Hengaw that Rafoosheh had been involved in a street altercation in Sanandaj about three years earlier that resulted in a killing. He subsequently turned himself in to law enforcement authorities and was sentenced to death by a Sanandaj Criminal Court on the charge of “premeditated murder.”

Videos obtained by Hengaw show residents and civil society activists gathering outside Sanandaj Central Prison on the evening of Monday, August 17, chanting “No to executions” and calling for the execution to be halted while efforts were made to secure clemency from the victim’s family. Despite the protest, the judiciary carried out the execution early the following morning.

Source: hengaw.net, Staff, August 18-20, 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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