Iran Executes Seven People Including Three Linked to January Protests

Iran executed seven people on Monday, including three men convicted in connection with the January protests in the city of Mashhad, as rights groups said at least one of them was put to death without credible evidence against him. Arrests and executions in Iran, particularly linked to the protests that began in December over living costs, have been on the rise since the start of the Iran war in February. The judiciary said Mehdi Rasouli, 25, and Mohammad Reza Miri, 21, were hanged at Vakilabad prison in Mashhad after being convicted of allegedly acting as Mossad agents, directing unrest in the city's Tabarsi district and involvement in the killing of a member of the security forces during the protests. A third man, Ebrahim Dolatabadi, was hanged alongside them on charges of leading disturbances in the same area. The IRGC-run Fars news agency reported that Rasouli had taken part in the protests carrying a homemade sword, and that both he and Miri had used Molotov cocktails. The judiciary cited confessions as evidence. A source familiar with Rasouli's case told the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency that he had told relatives he accepted the charges only after being beaten and tortured. Security agencies had pressed his family to stay silent, promising his sentence might be reduced if they did not publicise the case, HRANA reported. He called his family on Saturday to say he was being transferred to solitary confinement. The Hengaw Human Rights Organisation said Dolatabadi was executed despite "no evidentiary proof being presented against him and his legal process lacking transparency." Sources close to Dolatabadi told Hengaw his execution was a form of sacrifice intended to secure the release of his two brothers, Vahid and Esmail Dolatabadi, who remain imprisoned in Vakilabad prison. His 14-year-old son Iman, who was also arrested during the protests, was recently released from a juvenile detention centre in Mashhad. Dolatabadi is survived by two children aged 9 and 14. The Tehran regime has commonly accused its opponents — including participants in the country-wide protests sparked by hyperinflation and cost of living crisis that peaked in January — of working for the US or Israeli intelligence without providing further evidence. Separately, four men convicted of murder were executed at Dastgerd prison in Isfahan on Monday, according to the Iran Human Rights Organisation. The judiciary had not confirmed the executions at the time of publication. The four were identified as Peyman Mohammadi, 37, his brother Mohammadreza Mohammadi, 41, Abbas Rahimi-Azar, 29, and Mehdi Badfar, 33, all sentenced to death under qisas — the principle of "eye for an eye" — in separate cases. Badfar, a farmer from Chabahar, had been held for five years and had lost three fingers in a threshing machine accident before his arrest. Iran is the world's most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups. Since the start of the war on 28 February, Iran's judiciary has executed at least 30 people in connection with the January protests, alleged membership of opposition groups, or espionage charges. At least 747 people were executed in Iran on murder-related charges alone in 2025, according to the Iran Human Rights Organisation's annual report. Last year it hanged at least 1,500 people, according to the group's figures, which says Tehran has executed 12 people in cases linked to the protests of 2022-2023. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran has said the rate of executions has risen sharply since the war began.