Iran executes three young men tied to January protest crackdown, rights groups warn
Iran hanged three young men in Qom after convictions tied to “moharabeh,” or “waging war against God,” in a development that rights groups said raises fears of more executions after a January crackdown on nationwide protests, according to the Associated Press.
The men were identified by state media as Saleh Mohammadi, Mehdi Qasemi and Saeed Davoudi, the Associated Press reported. The executions took place early Thursday morning in Qom, just south of Tehran, and the charges were linked to allegations that they killed two police officers during protests in the city, the report said.
Rights groups said the executions follow mass arrests during protests that began in late December and peaked in the first week of January. The Associated Press said the executions were among the first carried out from among the tens of thousands arrested during that period, when security forces carried out what the report described as the deadliest crackdown since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, said in a statement to the Associated Press that the executions were intended to instill fear in society and deter new protests amid Iran’s external conflict environment. He also said the Islamic Republic’s leadership is focused on squelching dissent as the war situation intensifies, and he warned that executions of protesters and political prisoners may be imminent, the report said.
Amiry-Moghaddam told the Associated Press that his organization has documented at least 27 death sentences issued for people arrested during the protests. He said another 100 people face charges that carry the death penalty, and that Iranian state media have aired hundreds of forced confessions for crimes punishable by death, according to the report.
Amnesty International and Iran Human Rights have also criticized the fairness of the cases leading to executions. Amnesty International said the convictions of the three men and others arrested during the protests came in “grossly unfair trials” and involved confessions extracted by torture, the Associated Press reported, citing an Amnesty open letter criticizing prosecutions connected to the protests.
Because of internet restrictions by Iranian authorities, the Associated Press said it has been difficult to confirm details and compile a reliable total of deaths and executions beyond the state-reported cases. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists New Agency told the Associated Press it confirmed more than 7,000 killings and said it was investigating thousands more, while the government acknowledged more than 3,000 killed, the report said.
The Associated Press reported that, with limited information available, at least one identifying detail emerged from rights-group documentation: Davoudi was born on March 20, 2004, meaning he was executed a day before his 22nd birthday. The report said Qasemi’s age was not known to Amiry-Moghaddam, and it described Mohammadi as a prominent athlete, noting he won a bronze medal at a 2024 international youth freestyle wrestling tournament in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
In describing Mohammadi’s background, the Associated Press cited an Iranian teacher in Toronto, Shiva Amelirad, who said Mohammadi spoke with her in 2022 while he was still in high school. Amelirad said Mohammadi had participated in anti-government protests that erupted earlier that year after Mahsa Amini died in police custody, and she said he told her that workouts and eating ice cream were ways to “forget all this catastrophe that we are facing,” the Associated Press reported. She also said Mohammadi “always tried to show that he was happy,” according to the report.
The Associated Press said Mohammadi, Qasemi and Davoudi were arrested in Qom on Jan. 15, according to multiple human rights groups, though their individual circumstances at the time of arrest were not known. The report said Amnesty and Iran Human Rights stated the men were arrested after authorities accused them of killing a police officer on Jan. 8 and convicted them in early February, and it described Amnesty’s assertion that Mohammadi was beaten and that one of his hands was broken during detention. Amnesty said Mohammadi denied the charges and retracted confessions in court, according to the Associated Press, which also described Iranian state media as showing video footage tied to the convictions.
As Iran’s war with external adversaries continues, the Associated Press said Iranian authorities have continued detaining people connected to dissent. It said authorities signaled that fast trials and executions were coming during the height of the January unrest, and it described the later shift to an intensified airstrike campaign targeting Iran’s leadership and security leadership, while insisting the crackdown on protests continued nonetheless.