It has been virtually three months since Peyvand Naimi, 30, was arrested in reference to the mass street protests that unfold throughout Iran in January earlier than being brutally suppressed. Since then, he has been detained for greater than a month in solitary confinement, appeared in a televised pressured confession, and has undergone two mock hangings, beatings, interrogation, psychological torture and hunger.
He has been accused of involvement within the deaths of safety brokers through the protests and of celebrating the loss of life of Iran’s former supreme chief, Ali Khamenei, however his household insist he has achieved nothing mistaken and that no formal prices have been made. He has been denied entry to a lawyer; his family members concern he now faces execution.
“My complete physique was shaking once I heard concerning the torture he has endured,” says Zahra Hosseini*, an in depth relative. “It’s unbelievable. I’m very anxious.”
Naimi’s unsure destiny comes amid issues {that a} surge in executions is going down in Iran and has been “overshadowed” by the US-Israeli struggle on Iran. At the least 145 persons are confirmed to have been killed in 2026 up to now, with an extra 400-plus executions reported however not verified, in keeping with Iran Human Rights.
Earlier this month, three males have been hanged in public after they have been arrested over the January protests. Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestling star, together with Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi, was convicted of moharebeh, or waging struggle in opposition to God, according to state media. A day earlier, Kourosh Keyvani, a Swedish-Iranian twin nationwide, was executed for spying for Israel.
The web shutdown makes it unattainable to find out precisely what number of executions have been carried out this yr. Many loss of life sentences, and even prices that would result in the loss of life penalty, haven’t been formally introduced. As a substitute, they’re solely communicated to the prisoners themselves and their households.
Households of the tens of hundreds of individuals nonetheless detained after the January protests are additionally being warned by the authorities to not contact anybody. Dozens of protesters are going through the loss of life penalty, according to Amnesty.
“We’re involved that these executions and human rights violations are overshadowed by the struggle,” says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights. “Proper now, everybody is considering oil costs, and due to that the political price of those executions may be very low.”
Within the central Iranian metropolis of Isfahan, Shervin Bagherian Jabali’s household came upon he had been sentenced to loss of life in a broadcast on state tv. Within the footage, an interrogator tells Jabali, 18, he has been charged with moharebeh.
In a trembling voice, Jabali asks, “What does moharebeh imply? Might you clarify it to me? I don’t know what it’s, sir.” “Execution,” comes the reply.
One in all his associates instructed the Guardian that Jabali had been subjected to a few mock executions, with a noose positioned round his neck in an try and pressure him to admit to killing 4 of the Basij militia’s safety brokers.
On Monday, state media introduced that two political prisoners – Mohammad Taghavi, 59, and Akbar Daneshvarkar, 60 – had been executed for baghi (armed rebel in opposition to the state). Amnesty Worldwide beforehand said their death sentences in October 2024 followed a grossly unfair trial marred by allegations of torture to extract pressured confessions.
Additionally this week, Babak Alipour, 34, and Pouya Ghobadi, 33, have been executed in Ghezel Hesar jail, close to Tehran, in keeping with the Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran, after being sentenced to loss of life for membership of the Individuals’s Mujahideen of Iran, an exiled opposition group, following months of interrogation and torture.
Human rights teams say state media use executions as warnings to the general public in opposition to dissent. “Because the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, Iranian authorities have intentionally weaponised the loss of life penalty to instil concern among the many inhabitants and suppress dissent,” says Mansoureh Mills, Amnesty Worldwide’s Iran researcher.
On 23 March, the primary deputy chief of the judiciary reportedly introduced that the cases tied to the January protests had been reviewed, with some reaching closing verdicts that have been now being carried out. He emphasised that no leniency can be granted to these convicted.
There have been at least 1,639 executions in 2025, in contrast with 975 in 2024, in keeping with the UN particular rapporteur for human rights in Iran, whereas civil society organisations have stated there have been truly greater than 2,000 executions final yr. Such variations in figures are unsurprising, in keeping with the UN, as solely 7% of executions have been introduced by official sources. Most have been carried out for medication or homicide prices.
In northern Iran, near the border with Turkmenistan, Danial Niazi’s mom came upon on 20 February that her 18-year-old son would face trial in 10 days’ time, in keeping with Kurdpa, a Kurdish information company and human rights organisation. With the web nonetheless down, it stays unclear whether or not this has occurred.
Based on a replica of his indictment seen by the Guardian, Niazi, a member of the Kurdish minority, has been charged with moharebeh in addition to tried homicide, intentional assault, meeting and collusion in opposition to nationwide safety, disrupting public order, and propaganda in opposition to the state.
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