By Ebel Okonkwo<\/p>\n
Iran executed three men accused of carrying out operations on behalf of Israel and the United States during January’s nationwide anti-government protests, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary announced on Sunday, in the latest executions of prisoners detained in connection with the uprising.<\/p>\n
Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi, and Reza Zanganeh were executed after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, according to judicial authorities, who accused the men of participating in armed attacks, arson, and the destruction of public infrastructure during demonstrations in Karaj, west of Tehran, on January 8 and 9.<\/p>\n
The three were convicted of participating in what the judiciary described as operational activities for Israel, the United States, and hostile groups against Iran’s national security and interests. Their sentences also included the confiscation of their property.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media alleged that the men had acted in accordance with calls for demonstrations by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and as part of an Israeli-American plan to destabilize the country.<\/p>\n
According to the judiciary, during January\u2019s protests, the defendants attacked government buildings, destroyed surveillance cameras, and damaged an electrical substation that caused power outages in parts of Karaj.<\/p>\n
The group possessed firearms, knives, Molotov cocktails, and homemade explosive devices, according to the authorities, and had assaulted two people whom they believed to be security personnel.<\/p>\n
State-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that investigators claimed to have recovered two hunting rifles, ammunition, and evidence of the manufacture and use of 20 Molotov cocktails and 15 homemade explosive devices.<\/p>\n
The judiciary said confessions, surveillance footage, and intelligence reports supported the convictions, although the evidence has not been independently examined.<\/p>\n
The executions came just two days after the Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, reported that Divband and Kazemi had been sentenced to death by Branch 2 of the Karaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Sabzevari.<\/p>\n
The organisation said on Friday that both men were being held at Karaj Central Prison and that their sentences had been issued under provisions concerning operational activities against national security.<\/p>\n
Iran alleges Iranian organised attacks, encouraged property destruction<\/p>\n
Divband was arrested in January following an investigation by the Intelligence Ministry’s Alborz provincial office, according to the judiciary, which accused him of organising attacks and encouraging others to destroy public property.<\/p>\n
Authorities alleged that Divband, 30, who owned an automotive repair business, had recruited employees and relatives to participate in the demonstrations.<\/p>\n
However, information published by IranWire on Friday, citing an Iranian committee monitoring the detention of protesters, revealed that several members of Divband’s family had also been arrested during the January crackdown.<\/p>\n
They included his 29-year-old relative Ali-Asghar Divband, 15-year-old Ali-Akbar Divband, and his 50-year-old father, Mohammad-Ali Divband. Another relative, Hamidreza Forouhar, 20, was also detained.<\/p>\n
Their current circumstances remain unclear, with no independently verified information available concerning their charges or whether they remain in custody.<\/p>\n
Zanganeh, 27, had previously been sentenced to death on accusations of cooperating with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights.<\/p>\n
Hengaw reported in August that Zanganeh, a recently married automotive technician specialising in foreign vehicles, was arrested at his workplace in April and later held at Ghezel Hesar Prison.<\/p>\n
People close to him rejected the espionage allegations, saying they believed the accusations arose from his work repairing imported vehicles and previous business-related travel abroad.<\/p>\n
The organisation reported that his death sentence had been issued by the same Revolutionary Court in Karaj, while other rights groups subsequently warned that he had been transferred to solitary confinement.<\/p>\n
Eight other Iranian defendants receive prison sentences<\/p>\n
The judiciary said eight other defendants in the Karaj case had received prison sentences ranging from five to ten years.<\/p>\n
The executions come amid continued concern over the Islamic Republic’s use of legislation introduced in 2025 that increased punishments for espionage and cooperation with Israel and other countries designated as hostile, as well as the use of execution on protesters from January\u2019s demonstrations.<\/p>\n
The legislation, accelerated following the Twelve Day War in June 2025 war between Israel and Iran, expanded the range of national security offenses punishable by death.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran warned in September that the law was being used against protesters accused of acting on behalf of foreign governments, often without evidence establishing any genuine espionage activities.<\/p>\n
Their investigation examined 29 executions linked to the January protests between March and August, finding that 16 of the cases involved no allegation that the defendants had killed anyone.<\/p>\n
The organisations documented proceedings marked by allegations of torture, coerced confessions, restricted access to legal representation, and trials that sometimes concluded within weeks of an arrest.<\/p>\n
“The authorities’ message is clearly that protests will be met with brutality,” Bahar Saba, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said at the time.<\/p>\n
Scale of Iranian executions raise international concern
\nThe scale of the executions has continued to raise international concern.<\/p>\n
An October investigation by Iran International identified at least 70 executions in political and security cases between January 7 and October 5, including 35 connected to the January protests. The investigation also identified 194 people facing death sentences in political and security cases, 113 of whom had been arrested in connection with the protests.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization reported on November 3 that it had documented at least 691 executions across all criminal categories during the first ten months of 2026, including 77 in October alone.<\/p>\n
The organisation cautioned that the figures represented verified cases and that the actual number of executions could be considerably higher, given the restrictions on independent reporting and information from inside Iranian prisons.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s executions add to the number of protesters put to death since the authorities suppressed the demonstrations that began in late December 2025, with human rights organisations warning that scores of other detainees remain at risk of execution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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