BalkanWeb – Iran hangs three men for January protests in ‘wave’ of executions
Iran executed three men accused of protests this January, authorities said Monday, the latest in a wave of hangings of those seen by human rights groups as political prisoners amid the war against the United States and Israel.
Iranian authorities have carried out executions almost daily in recent weeks, in what activists have denounced as an attempt to sow fear in society at a time of international and domestic tensions.
Mehdi Rassouli, Mohammad Reza Miri and Ebrahim Dolatabadi were executed after being convicted of rioting in the eastern city of Mashhad in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
It was not specified when or where they were executed. But the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Rassouli, 25, and Miri, 21, were hanged at dawn on Sunday in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.
The protests began in December sparked by complaints about the cost of living, but intensified into nationwide rallies against the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass demonstrations on the nights of January 8 and 9.
Human rights groups say thousands of people were killed in a crackdown by security forces, while authorities have blamed “rioters” they say were supported by the United States and Israel.
Mizan said Rassouli and Miri were responsible for the death of a member of the security forces and described Dolatabadi as one of the “inciters” of the unrest in Mashhad.
But the Norway-based NGO, Iran Human Rights, described the three as “political prisoners” who had been sentenced “after unfair trials in Revolutionary Courts.”
It was said that since executions resumed in March during the war against the United States and Israel, Iran had executed 24 men considered “political prisoners.”
Thirteen men were executed during the January 2026 protests, another man for the 2022 demonstrations, nine men for suspected links to the banned opposition group the People’s Mujahedin, and one for membership in a Sunni militant organization.
Within the same timeframe, four other individuals have been executed for suspected espionage for Israel.
“The international community, especially the European Union, must respond decisively to this continuing wave of executions,” said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.
“If the political cost of these executions is not increased through clear and strong international responses, there is a serious risk that daily executions will continue in the weeks and months ahead,” he added.
Amnesty International said in a statement on May 1 that the international community should not “stand idly by while the Iranian authorities continue to escalate the arbitrary execution of political dissidents and protesters to sow fear.”
Amnesty said it had documented the cases of 13 men who, it said, had been subjected to torture and “convicted in grossly unfair trials that relied on forced ‘confessions’ and lasted several hours.”
Iran is the country that carries out the most executions in the world after China, according to human rights groups, and last year it hanged at least 1,639 people, according to figures from the IHR.
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