Iran executes eight prisoners, rights groups report arrests, prison sentences

Iranian authorities have executed eight prisoners at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, while rights groups have reported a series of prison sentences, arrests and judicial rulings against activists, academics, writers and participants in the nationwide protests that erupted in early 2026.

According to the foreign-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), eight prisoners were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison on 13 June. The organisation identified two of those executed as Seyed Akbar Banihashem and Amirabbas Dekavand, both of whom had been sentenced to death on murder charges. The identities of the remaining six prisoners have not yet been confirmed, News.Az reports.

As of the time of reporting, Iranian prison authorities and other official bodies had not publicly announced the executions.

Meanwhile, Mehdi Pakmehr, a singer and cultural activist from Bojnurd who was arrested during the January 2026 protests, has been sentenced in two separate cases to a total of six years in prison and corporal punishment.

According to rights groups, the Criminal Court of Bojnurd sentenced Pakmehr to one year and three months in prison and 70 lashes, while the Revolutionary Court imposed an additional five-year prison sentence, with one year reportedly suspended. Another report put the flogging sentence at 80 lashes. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the charges against him, and judicial officials have reportedly refused to provide written copies of the verdicts.

Pakmehr was arrested on 9 January after being wounded in the leg by pellet gun fire during the anti-government protests. He spent approximately two months in detention.

In a separate case, Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced Yousef Ansari, a member of the Board of Secretaries of the Iranian Writers’ Association, to one year in prison on a charge of “propaganda against the regime”. Under the ruling, four months of the sentence are to be served, while the remaining eight months were suspended.

Ansari was arrested on 8 January during a memorial ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of writer and dissident Baktash Abtin. He was released on bail in March.

HRANA also reported the arrest of Fereydoun Farahani, a music instructor and visiting architecture lecturer at Tehran's Pars University. Farahani had previously published a statement supporting students and their participation in the protests. No official information has been released regarding the reasons for his arrest, any charges against him or his place of detention.

Another protest-related detainee, Zahra (Mahsa) Jamali, who is currently being held in the women's ward of Tehran's Evin Prison, was sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to six months in prison. Further details regarding the charges against her have not been disclosed.

In Khuzestan Province, an appeals court upheld a prison sentence against Shayan Moradi Motlagh, who was arrested during the January protests. He was sentenced to two years and one day in prison on a charge of “disrupting public order” under the Islamic Penal Code. The sentence was previously issued by the Revolutionary Court in Izeh.

Separately, the HANA Human Rights Organization reported that intelligence agents raided the homes of brothers Sardar Rahmani and Ehsan Rahmani in Kamyaran on 13 June, confiscating personal belongings, including mobile phones.

The two men were subsequently summoned to the local Intelligence Office. Their families have reportedly received no information regarding their whereabouts or condition since then. Rights groups noted that the brothers had previously been questioned by security authorities in 2025 over their participation in Nowruz celebrations and their use of Kurdish symbols.

Human rights organisations say the arrests and judicial actions are part of an ongoing crackdown that followed nationwide protests that began in late December 2025 and spread across Iran, resulting in thousands of arrests. Rights groups continue to express concern over due process violations, the use of corporal punishment and the increasing number of executions carried out in the country.

News.Az