Iran | Executions in Kerman, Isfahan, Mashhad

Iranian authorities have executed at least two prisoners, Ali Alizehi, a Baloch man, and Mehrdad Sheikhi, in prisons in Kerman and Isfahan. Both had previously been sentenced to death on charges related to “drug offenses.”

Based on information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Alizehi, approximately 43 years old and a father of two from Zahedan, was executed at dawn on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at Kerman Central Prison.

Informed sources said Alizehi had been arrested eight years earlier on charges related to “drug offenses” and subsequently sentenced to death by Iran’s judiciary.

Separately, Sheikhi was executed at dawn on Monday, September 28, 2026, at Isfahan Central Prison. He had been sentenced to death on charges related to “drug offenses.”

Neither execution had been announced by Iran’s state media or institutions affiliated with the judiciary.

Executions in Mashhad

Iranian authorities have executed two political prisoners, Ali Hemmati Sistani and Majid Nikandish, who were arrested during the January 2026 protests and sentenced to death on the charge of “waging war against God” (moharebeh) after being subjected to torture and forced confessions. Their sentences were carried out at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

Based on information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the two men were executed at dawn on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. Hemmati Sistani was married and the father of two children, while Nikandish, 25, was from Quchan.

Mizan, the official news agency of Iran’s judiciary, confirmed the executions.

Nikandish was arrested on Saturday, January 10, 2026, while Hemmati Sistani was detained during the January protests. Following months of torture and forced confessions, both were transferred to Vakilabad Prison.

Hengaw has learned that Branch 1 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Gholamreza Akbari, sentenced both men to death in May 2026 on the charge of “waging war against God” (moharebeh). The Supreme Court upheld their death sentences in July.

Iran’s judiciary accused the two protesters of involvement in demonstrations in Mashhad’s Tabarsi district and linked them to the deaths of four government forces. Based on what Hengaw describes as a security-driven case constructed against them, the authorities charged both men with “waging war against God.”

Source: Hengaw, Staff, September 30, 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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