The public execution of two protesters today, following the arbitrary execution of at least three other protesters last week, marks a further escalation in the authorities’ use of the death penalty to quash dissent, Amnesty International said. The organization fears that at least 60 others, including three arrested as children, remain at risk of execution after being sentenced to death, while many others are facing prosecution on capital charges in relation to the protests.
In the first half of 2026, Iranian authorities have increasingly used broadly worded national security charges, including espionage and collaboration with hostile states, to convict and sentence to death individuals arrested in the context of the January 2026 protests. Since the beginning of the year, they have arbitrarily executed at least 26 people convicted of offences in connection with the January 2026 protests, following torture-tainted grossly unfair trials by Revolutionary Courts. Beyond those targeted in the context of the protests, the authorities have arbitrarily executed at least 26 other individuals on politically motivated charges, while continuing to carry out hundreds of executions for drug-related offences and other crimes.
