Iran Executes Two Men Publicly in Isfahan Linked to January Protests

Iran publicly executed two men in Isfahan on Tuesday in a case tied to unrest during January’s anti-government protests, as rights groups said the hangings were part of a rapidly expanding wave of death sentences and executions linked to the crackdown.

The men were identified as Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari. Iran’s judiciary-linked Mizan News Agency said, “The death sentences of Abolfazl Sepahi and Amir-Hossein Safari were carried out this morning.” Amnesty International, citing judiciary reporting and accounts compiled with The Associated Press, said the executions were carried out publicly in the Alikhani Square, or Malekshahr, area of Isfahan province on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

According to judiciary reporting cited by AP and Amnesty, Sepahi and Safari were defendants in the “Alikhani Square” case, tied to clashes in Isfahan on Jan. 8, 2026. The judiciary accused them of involvement in the killing of four security force members, as well as arson, setting a police station on fire and damaging property. Iranian authorities have presented those accusations as the basis for the death sentences.

Amnesty said the executions followed the hanging of at least three other protesters last week and marked a further escalation in the authorities’ use of the death penalty against protest defendants. Two other men in the same Isfahan case, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi, were executed on July 19, according to Mizan and rights monitors. Amnesty said it fears at least 60 others remain at risk of execution after being sentenced to death, including three people arrested as children. The group also said Iranian authorities executed at least 26 people in the first half of 2026 after convictions tied to the January protests.

“The Iranian authorities are unleashing a horrifying wave of executions and death sentences to punish and suppress dissent and project an image of strength and absolute control in the wake of the January popular uprising and amid ongoing attacks by US and Israeli forces,” Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director, said in a statement.

Amnesty and other rights groups say many protest defendants have been prosecuted on capital charges including “enmity against God,” known in Iran’s legal system as moharebeh, and “corruption on earth,” or efsad-e fel-arz. They allege those cases have often been handled in closed Revolutionary Court proceedings, with defendants denied access to lawyers during investigations and subjected to coerced or televised confessions. Those allegations could not be independently verified from the material made public by Iranian authorities.

The protests cited in the cases began on Dec. 28, 2025, amid economic grievances and a sharp collapse of the rial, and spread nationwide through January 2026. Authorities responded with mass arrests and a nationwide internet blackout on Jan. 8, 2026. Rights groups say the public nature of Tuesday’s executions signals a harsher phase in the crackdown.

The U.N. Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has warned against expedited prosecutions and executions of protest detainees and, in late July, urged Iranian authorities to halt protest-related executions.