Iran International
Iran has executed at least 29 people arrested in connection with the widespread protests in January, more than half of whom were not accused of killing anyone, with some put to death in public in what rights groups describe as a campaign to deter further dissent.
The findings are contained in a new joint report by Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran examining executions following the nationwide protests that erupted in late 2025 and January 2026.
Between March 18 and the end of August, Iranian authorities announced the executions of 29 people arrested in connection with the protests. Several were just 18 or 19 years old, and five were executed in public.
In 16 cases, authorities did not allege that the defendants had killed anyone. Instead, young protesters have been executed over allegations including setting fire to buildings or vehicles, possessing or using Molotov cocktails, entering or damaging government buildings, throwing stones and blocking streets.
The organizations say the speed with which some defendants have gone from arrest to execution has been extraordinary.
Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestling champion, was executed about five weeks after his arrest. Amir Hossein Hatami, 18, was executed 84 days after his arrest.
Sasan Azadvar Jonaqani, a 21-year-old karate champion, was arrested, convicted and executed in under four months. Authorities accused him of acts including breaking the windows of a police bus with stones and a baton.
‘War against God’
The executions mark a new phase in the crackdown that followed the January protests, when Iranian authorities killed thousands and detained tens of thousands as they sought to suppress the unrest.
Human Rights Watch and the Boroumand Center found that at least 59 men were executed during the same period on what they described as politically motivated and vaguely defined national security charges following grossly unfair trials.
At least three had reportedly been arrested in connection with the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Iranian courts have relied heavily on broadly defined capital offenses including “waging war against God” and “corruption on earth.”
Human Rights Watch and the Boroumand Center said those charges have allowed courts to impose death sentences without establishing that defendants were responsible for intentional killings.
‘Helping hostile states’
The report also points to Iran's 2025 Espionage Law as an increasingly important tool in protest-related prosecutions.
At least eight protesters executed following the recent demonstrations were convicted under the law, which expanded the range of conduct punishable as cooperation with “hostile states” and provides for expedited proceedings.
It can also impose lengthy prison terms for sending footage, images or information to foreign media, citizen journalists or foreign social media pages when authorities deem the activity contrary to national security.
‘Torture, forced confessions’
Human Rights Watch and the Boroumand Center documented defendants being denied independent lawyers of their choosing and courts relying on confessions allegedly extracted through torture, as well as unsubstantiated reports from security and intelligence agencies.
Detainees were allegedly beaten, subjected to electric shocks and mock executions, held for prolonged periods in solitary confinement and threatened with sexual violence against themselves or family members.
Some defendants later retracted their confessions in court and said they had been tortured. The report says authorities failed to investigate those allegations.
The organizations also documented the use of televised confessions before cases had concluded.
In one recording broadcast by state media, an interrogator told 18-year-old Shervin Bagherian that he was accused of “waging war against God.”
Bagherian appeared not to know what the charge meant. When the interrogator told him it meant execution, the teenager pleaded not to be put to death.
Public hangings
The report places particular emphasis on the return of public executions in protest-related cases, which the organizations say is intended to instill fear in the wider population.
On July 28, authorities executed Abolfazl Sepahi and Amir Hossein Safari in Alikhani Square in Isfahan, where four members of the security forces were reported killed during protests on January 8.
Three other men — Saleh Mohammadi, Saeed Davoudi and Mehdi Ghasemi — were executed in March “in the presence of a group of people in Qom,” according to the judiciary's Mizan news agency, language the report says indicated a public execution.
Scores could be next
Scores of protesters and political dissidents, including women and children, remain at risk of execution, according to the report.
Amnesty International said in July that it had identified 60 people, including three children, at risk of execution in connection with protests. Iran Human Rights has reported that more than 70 protesters were at risk in Isfahan Prison alone.
The actual number could be substantially higher.
Among those who could still be executed is 26-year-old mixed martial arts fighter and kickboxer Benyamin Naghdi.
A revolutionary court in Shiraz sentenced Naghdi to death for “corruption on earth” after accusing him of using a fire extinguisher as a makeshift flamethrower against security forces riding motorcycles during protests on January 3.
His lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said prosecutors initially accused Naghdi of attempted murder but later dropped charges related to bodily injury. Nili said no one was injured.
Nevertheless, the court concluded that the remaining allegations collectively amounted to “corruption on earth,” and Iran's Supreme Court upheld Naghdi's death sentence in July, according to the report.
Lawyers taking protest-related cases have also faced threats of arrest, while the Boroumand Center documented the arrests of at least 19 lawyers in the month following the January crackdown. Others have faced renewed prosecution or disbarment.
Human Rights Watch and the Boroumand Center describe the campaign as the “weaponization of the death penalty” in the aftermath of the January crackdown, intended to instill fear and deter further dissent.
Branch 3 of the Bandar Abbas Revolutionary Court convicted her on charges including insulting Iran's supreme leader, media and propaganda activity against national security, intelligence and security activity on behalf of hostile governments, and taking and sending photographs to Persian-language media abroad, according to the information.
The court also sentenced her to between two and five years in prison, barred her from some government services and ordered the confiscation of property. Her lawyer was notified of the death sentence on August 23.
Ebrahimi Shamsabadi was held in solitary confinement for 20 days and faced severe pressure during interrogation, according to information obtained by Iran International. Her family was not told where she was being held or about her condition during that period.
The sentence was issued by Judge Khajeh-Hassani, who was previously praised by judiciary officials as an exemplary judge for, among other things, issuing a high number of rulings and what they described as diligence in his work.
More political and protest-related death sentences
The case comes amid a series of death sentences against protesters and political detainees in Iran.
Earlier this month, US-based rights outlet HRANA reported that Ali Zarei Doozdarresi, a protester who lost sight in one eye after being shot during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, had been sentenced to death after returning to Iran from Germany.
Iran International also reported in August that Leila Abolhassani, a 43-year-old mother of two detained during the January protests in Shahin Shahr, had been sentenced to death on charges of “waging war against God.” Her case was sent to the Supreme Court following an appeal.
Rights groups warn of rising executions
Rights groups have accused Iranian authorities of increasingly using capital punishment against protesters and political dissidents.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights said last month that 29 people arrested in connection with the January 2026 protests had been executed since March 19, in addition to two protesters from the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in August that it had documented 950 executions in Iran since the start of 2026, including at least 20 women and 30 protesters. The UN human rights chief has also accused Iran of using executions to “instill fear among the population and suppress dissent.”
The clashes began around a residential property in the Bakhshan area before dawn and were still continuing nearly eight hours later, extending to the vicinity of the Madani Grand Mosque and parts of Jahadabad, according to the group’s updates.
Local sources cited by Haalvsh said gunmen attacked at least three vehicles carrying military and security personnel, as well as two locations where forces had gathered. The reported casualty figures have not been independently confirmed.
Sources described sustained gunfire, repeated explosions and the use of heavy weapons, with fighting resuming after brief pauses. Haalvsh said it had not independently established the precise locations of all the exchanges.
Several ambulances were reportedly stationed nearby. Local sources said wounded personnel and bodies had been removed by other security forces, with some transported by ambulance to medical facilities. The identities and exact number of those killed or wounded remained unknown.
Roads blocked around residential area
Security forces blocked streets and access routes around the Madani Grand Mosque, roughly 200 meters from the house targeted in the initial operation, local sources said. A substantial deployment remained in the area, restricting movement around the fighting.
Gunmen inside the house exchanged fire with security personnel, some of whom were wearing traditional Baluch clothing, according to the sources. The property was described as belonging to a local resident, but the reports did not establish his connection, if any, to the gunmen.
Haalvsh reported civilians close to some of the clashes. Their situation remained unclear as fighting continued and roads were blocked, with no confirmed information on civilian casualties.
The gunmen’s identities and affiliations, the reason for the initial operation and any casualties among the armed group were also unknown. Military and security authorities had not issued an official account by the time of its latest update.
Saravan is in Sistan and Baluchestan, a southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan and home to Iran’s mainly Sunni Muslim Baluch minority. The province has a long history of armed insurgency, although the reports provided no established link between Saturday’s gunmen and any known group.
