Iran hangs another protester as dozens more risk execution: rights groups

Iran on Monday executed a man on charges related to protests this year, the latest in a spree of hangings on political or security accusations since the start of the US-Israeli war with dozens more risking execution, rights groups said.

Some three dozen men have been hanged on charges related to protests, membership of banned opposition groups, or espionage since wartime executions resumed in March, according to rights groups.

The latest man to be hanged was Abbas Akbari, who was accused of attacking an official building in Nain in the central province of Isfahan during the peak of the protest movement in January.

“The primary purpose of these executions is to instil fear in society and prevent future protests,” said the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.

He added the surge in executions has resulted in no “serious political consequences for the Islamic Republic”.

“Unless the political cost of executions increases, we are likely to witness the continuation, and even escalation of daily executions in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.

The Hengaw group, also based in Norway, described the execution as “a clear example of state-sanctioned killing aimed at intimidating society and suppressing the people’s legitimate right to protest”.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online website described Akbari as “one of the armed leaders” of protests in his region.

IHR and Hengaw said Iran has now executed 15 people on charges related to the 2026 protests since the war began. Another man was also executed in the same period on charges connected to protests in 2022.

Thirteen men have also been hanged over links to banned opposition groups including the outlawed People’s Muhajedin of Iran (PMOI or its Persian acronym MEK) but also proscribed Kurdish and Sunni Baluch organisations.

Nine men have meanwhile been executed on espionage charges, according to IHR.

Iran on Sunday hanged Mojtaba Kian on espionage charges after convicting him of sharing information during the war, Mizan said. His execution was the first on charges linked to this war.

IHR also said on Wednesday that two Iraqi men had been hanged on espionage charges. Their hanging has not been reported by media inside Iran.

Amnesty International said on Thursday that at least 78 “protesters, dissidents and others with real or perceived links to banned opposition groups” are under sentence of death and at risk of execution.

Hengaw said on Monday that a court had sentenced four defendants to death, and another four to prison terms in a case concerning the death of a member of the Basij militia in the Tehran district of Ekbatan in 2022.

“The defendants were sentenced to death without access to lawyers or adequate opportunities to present their defence, despite substantial ambiguities and flaws in the case file,” said Hengaw, adding they were at “serious risk of execution”.

Meanwhile the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the supreme court had overturned death sentences issued against Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and his wife, Bita Hemmati, in a case connected to the January 2026 protests.

Hemmati was the only woman so far known to have been sentenced to death in these protests. This latest development has yet to be confirmed by the Iranian judiciary.