Death Penalty News

The Iranian Judiciary has executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi, two men arrested in connection with the January protests, amid a continuing surge in political executions and the authorities’ ongoing campaign of reprisals against protesters. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi were carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Shahroud Central Prison in Semnan Province. The executions were announced by Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of the Iranian Judiciary.

TEHRAN – The Iranian authorities on June 16 executed two men after convicting them for their alleged role in anti-government protests that peaked in January, the judiciary said. “The death sentences of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, armed leaders of the January 2026 coup attempt, were carried out,” the judiciary’s official outlet Mizan Online reported. The executions were carried out after the pair were convicted of “moharebeh” – waging war against God – and “corruption on earth”, both capital offences.

For Iran’s Kurdish population, the death penalty is not only a criminal-justice issue. It is part of a larger architecture of state control, political intimidation, and national-security repression that has followed the Kurdish question since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Kurdish activists, religious prisoners, protesters, and ordinary prisoners are pulled into a judicial system where the state often controls the accusation, the interrogation, the confession, the court narrative, and, finally, the rope.

The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences of Alireza Mordasi, an imprisoned teacher held in Ahvaz’s Sheiban Prison. He was arrested on or around August 1, 2023, in Ahvaz by security forces. He was transferred to Sheiban Prison (also spelled Sheyban) in Ahvaz, where he remains.  Mordasi was arrested alongside others as part of a larger case. State media claimed the group had links to the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK, an exiled opposition group) and planned "disruptive operations" or "terrorist" activities in provinces including Khuzestan. 

The Final Letter of a Student Executed Before His Appeal Was Heard The family of Vahid Ben Amerian did not know their son would be executed that morning. No notice arrived from the court. His lawyers were not informed that the sentence would be carried out, even as his case was still pending before Iran’s Supreme Court. The family learned through state media that the top electrical engineering student had been executed on April 4 alongside five other prisoners. Before his execution, Vahid sent his mother a final message: “What greater honor is there than for you and me, Mother, to pay the price of resilience, to endure this pain, and to have made an impact on the fate of our people?”

Iranian authorities have secretly executed Fathollah Avary, a prisoner arrested during the January 2026 protests, in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Avary was executed at dawn on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Hamedan Central Prison. The execution was carried out without prior notification to his family, who were also denied a final visit. The Iranian judiciary had sentenced Avary to death on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”), accusing him of killing a member of the security forces identified as Mohammad Javad Bakhshian during protests in Hamedan on January 8, 2026.

The Islamic regime has used “wartime conditions” as a cover to intensify repression against the Iranian people, according to information reviewed by Amnesty International published earlier this week. In text messages reviewed by Amnesty, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was seen issuing direct warnings that those attempting to break through the regime’s internet restrictions could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, the punishment for which is often the death penalty. These threats were issued under the framing that ordinary online activity was a threat to national security.

Iranian authorities secretly executed Elias Zeinoddini, a Baloch prisoner from Lashar County, at Zahedan Central Prison in mid-May. He had previously been sentenced to death on accusations of “ moharebeh ” (waging war against God) and “participation in premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of a law enforcement officer. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Elias Zeinoddini, 44, from Lashar County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, was executed in the early hours of Friday, May 16, 2026, at Zahedan Central Prison. He was denied a final visit with his family prior to the execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 26 May 2026: Abdolghader Rasouli, a Kurdish man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Mahabad Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Mahabad Prison on 25 May 2026. His identity has been established as Abdolghader Rasouli, a Kurdish father of two from Mahabad. He was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 25 May 2026: Milad Armoun, Navid Najaran, Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini and Mehdi Imani, four “Woman, Life, Freedom” protesters, were sentenced to death by “Death Judge” Salavati after a grossly unfair trial. Defence counsel representing the defendants in what became known as the “Ekbatan case” have detailed the severe procedural and substantive flaws that violated fundamental due process rights and undermined the legitimacy of the rulings issued by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. News of the judgement comes just days after the Criminal Court acquitted the defendants of murder charges.

Iran executed a man on Monday who had been convicted of carrying out armed attacks during the statewide anti-government rallies that peaked in January, the judiciary announced. Abbas Akbari’s execution is the latest in a series of executions by the Islamic Republic, which increased hangings in security-related cases following the commencement of war with Israel and the US on February 28. “Abbas Akbari… was hanged this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported, describing him as “one of the armed leaders” during protests in the central province of Isfahan.

Iranian authorities have executed a prisoner identified as Eghbal Arghandeh in Karaj Central Prison. He had previously been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder.” According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution of 30-year-old Eghbal Arghandeh was carried out at dawn on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Karaj Central Prison. Sources told Hengaw that Arghandeh had been arrested approximately six years ago in connection with a fatal street altercation and was later sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary.

Seyedeh Zeynab (Aban) Mousavi and her brother, Seyed Hassan Mousavi, both detained during the protests earlier this year, are facing the charge of “ moharebeh ” (waging war against God) before the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad, a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law.  Based on information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a court session addressing the charges against the two siblings was held at the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad on Sunday, April 26, 2026.  During interrogations, government authorities accused the pair of “throwing Molotov cocktails” in connection with the protests in Mashhad, an allegation commonly raised against detainees under pressure to obtain forced confessions. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 4 May 2026: Jamal Hassanzadeh, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Rasht Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison on 29 April 2026. His identity has been established as Jamal Hassanzadeh, a 37-year-old father of one. Informed sources told IHRNGO that he been arrested four years ago on murder charges following an unintentional altercation and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Tehran executed 21-year-old karate athlete Sassan Azadvar early Thursday after protest arrest, as UN and rights groups warn of a surge in executions and mass detentions since the start of the Iran war. Iran’s judiciary has confirmed the execution of another detainee arrested during the recent protests, as the UN and other international human rights organisations reported a sharp rise in executions and arrests since the start of the Iran war in late February. Sassan Azadvar Joonqani, a 21-year-old karate athlete detained during the early January protests, was executed early Thursday morning at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, according to Iranian media.

Erbil, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities on Thursday executed another prisoner, citing alleged ties to Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, as well as to an exiled opposition group, a media affiliate of the Iranian judiciary reported. This comes as Tehran has in recent weeks executed more than a dozen detainees, including individuals arrested during nationwide anti-government protests in January. Mizan Online relayed that Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr was hanged after he “was convicted on charges of moharebeh [waging war against God] through membership in the terrorist [Mojahedin Khalq Organization] MKO/MEK group.”

DPN — Iranian authorities executed two men at dawn Monday on charges of espionage and cooperation with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the judiciary’s official news outlet reported. The men, identified by the Mizan news agency as Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi, were hanged following convictions for " moharebeh " — or waging war against God — and collaboration with "the Zionist regime." The executions were carried out after the country’s Supreme Court upheld their death sentences.

The 18th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, published by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), reveals an unprecedented escalation in the use of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2025.  At least 1,639 people were executed, marking the highest number of recorded executions since 1989 and a dramatic 68% increase compared to 2024, when 975 executions were recorded. This is the continuation of the execution surge that began after the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests in 2022, illustrating the authorities’ continued reliance on the death penalty as a tool to instil fear and deter new protests.

Mohsen Eslamkhah, a 20-year-old Kurdish citizen who was arrested in connection with the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in Bukan, has been sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mahabad. Eslamkhah is currently held in Bukan Prison alongside two other political prisoners facing execution: Rauf Sheikh-Maroufi and Mohammad Faraji. An informed source who spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said: “Mohsen Eslamkhah was identified by security forces in 2022 due to his participation in the Women, Life, Freedom protests in Bukan. His family home was raided several times by these forces in an attempt to arrest him. He was 16 years old at the time and, due to pressure from security bodies and fear of arrest, he was forced to leave Iran and lived in the Kurdistan Region [of Iraq] until 2025.”

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.