ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities on Wednesday executed two men convicted over their involvement in January’s nationwide anti-government protests in the northeastern city of Mashhad in Razavi Khorasan province, according to the judiciary.
Ali Hemmati and Majid Nik-Andish were executed on Wednesday morning after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, the judiciary-affiliated news agency Mizan news agency reported.
Mizan said the two protestors were among the leaders of unrest in Mashhad’s Tabarsi area on January 8, during which four security personnel were killed. It said Hemmati confessed to stabbing a member of the Basij paramilitary force and that Nik-Andish stabbed another, while accusing the two of involvement in arson and the destruction of public property.
The executions come amid an intensified use of the death penalty against people detained in connection with the protests.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization reported in mid-September that at least 29 men arrested over the January protests had been executed since March 19, meaning Wednesday’s executions would bring the document tally to at least 31.
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) previously reported that Nik-Andish, 25, had been sentenced to death on the charge of “Moharebeh,” or “enmity against God,” by a revolutionary court in Mashhad. HRANA said it had received information indicating that he was subjected to forced confessions while in detention.
The nationwide protests began on December 28, 2025, initially over worsening economic conditions and the sharp depreciation of Iran’s currency before spreading across the country and developing into calls for political change.
Iranian security forces launched a sweeping crackdown on the demonstrations. HRANA documented 7,007 confirmed deaths during the first 50 days of the unrest, including 6,488 protestors and 236 children, while another 11,744 cases remained under review. The organization also documented tens of thousands of arrests.
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said on September 21 that authorities had executed at least 29 men in connection with the protests between March and the end of August, five of them publicly.
More than 70 people, including at least five women and three boys, remained at imminent risk of being sentenced to death or executed in connection with the protests, the mission said. It added that death sentences and executions had followed trials marked by due process violations, forced confessions, and denial of access to lawyers of the defendant’s choosing.
Sara Hossain, chair of the fact finding mission, said at least 221 children were reported killed during the protests, with the youngest reported victim only four and a half months also. She also said security and intelligence forces tortured detainees and subjected them to ill-treatment.
Rights groups have repeatedly accused the Iranian authorities of using executions and the threat of capital punishment to suppress dissent, while Tehran maintains that those executed have been convicted of serious security-related or violent offenses.
