ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian authorities on Tuesday executed two more men arrested during January's nationwide anti-government protests in the central city of Isfahan over their alleged involvement in the killing of four police officers, bringing the number of defendants hanged in the same case to nine.
The two men, Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, were executed after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, according to a statement carried by the judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency.
The judiciary said the two were among the main perpetrators of an attack on four unarmed police officers during protests in Isfahan in early January, accusing them of participating in armed violence and attacks on public buildings.
Iran uses torture and forced confessions to obtain evidence to convict protesters on various charges according to both iranian and international human rights organizations.
The executions came a day after the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) warned that Amirhossein Maleki, 20, and Abolfazl Ebrahimi, 18, were facing imminent execution after their families were summoned to the Isfahan Central Prison for final visits.
However, the judiciary identified the second man executed as Amirhossein Ebrahimi, 20, whom IHRNGO had listed as a separate defendant whose death sentence was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. It remains unclear whether Abolfazl Ebrahimi has also been executed.
The case stems from clashes between protesters and security forces in Isfahan's Alikhani Square on January 8, during the height of nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
Seven other defendants, including two Afghan nationals, have already been executed in connection with the case since July 19, according to IHRNGO.
Two of them, Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi, were publicly hanged in Alikhani Square in late July, the same location where authorities allege the four police officers were killed.
Rudaw previously reported that families of detainees gathered near the square on the morning of the public executions to protest against the hangings.
https://rudaw.net/english/categories/iran/1078552
In early October, Iranian authorities executed two other defendants, Alireza Sepahi, 25, and Alireza Raisi, 21, at Isfahan Central Prison, bringing the number executed in the case at that time to seven.
According to IHRNGO, 62 people were arrested in connection with the Alikhani Square case and at least 12 were sentenced to death.
The organization said it had documented allegations of physical, sexual and psychological torture used to extract confessions from defendants, raising serious concerns about the fairness of their trials.
In a statement on Monday, IHRNGO director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam warned that further executions were imminent and urged the international community to intervene.
"These executions are part of a systematic campaign to terrorise society and silence dissent," he said.
The organization also reported that the Supreme Court had rejected appeals by three other defendants, Amirhossein Ebrahimi, Ali Dashti and Shervin Bagherian, who was 17 at the time of the alleged offences.
The latest hangings come amid an intensifying crackdown on people arrested during the nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025 over deteriorating economic conditions before escalating into widespread demonstrations against the Islamic Republic.
UN experts called on Iran last month to halt executions as there were serious human rights violations in the cases reported to them.
“The cases brought to our attention are so riddled with procedural unfairness and underlying gross human rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, coerced confessions and denial of access to lawyers of their choosing, especially at the investigation stage, that this alone should rule out execution,” the experts said.
