Nine Hanged From One Square: Iran Executes Two More Young Isfahan Protesters as Rights Groups Cite Torture

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Iranian authorities hanged Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, two young men arrested over January’s anti-government protests in Isfahan, at the city’s Dastgerd Central Prison on the morning of Tuesday, November 3, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency !Unverified claim, Mizan (Iranian judiciary state media) and the rights groups Iran Human Rights (IHR), Hengaw and HRANA. Their deaths bring the number of people executed in the single Alikhani Square case to nine since July.

The case grew out of street protests on January 8 in Isfahan’s Malekshahr district, during the nationwide unrest that began in December over the collapsing currency. Authorities say four police officers were killed that night. Hengaw says the four were members of the police Special Units and the Basij, the paramilitary force under the Revolutionary Guards.

The regime’s account

Mizan, which is run by the judiciary and reflects the state’s position, described the two men as “two armed perpetrators of the January 2026 crime in Isfahan whose brutal and atrocious actions led to the martyrdom of four police officers,” according to AFP. Mizan said the executions followed a “thorough legal review” and that the Supreme Court had upheld the sentences.

The men were convicted of moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” and “corruption on earth,” two capital charges Iran routinely uses in protest cases. According to HRANA’s summary of the official report, Mizan alleged that Ebrahimi carried a bladed weapon and hid at a relative’s home before his arrest. It said Maleki, known as “Daichi,” played a role in the deaths, citing phone tracking and statements from co-defendants.

A lawyer for defendants in the case, Shahrzad Shahbazi, told Iran International that none of them had been formally charged with murder. IHR said authorities used “the deaths of four security officers to justify these executions, although none of those executed were charged with murder,” AFP reported.

Torture and a brother forced to testify

Rights groups say both convictions rested on coerced statements. A source close to the case told IHR that Ebrahimi was subjected to mock executions. The source said his 16-year-old brother was beaten so severely that he spent eight days in hospital and was “almost blinded,” and was pressured to say Amirhossein had carried a machete. The brother was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison, IHR said.

Iran International, citing a source familiar with the case, reported that Maleki was tortured into giving statements against a co-defendant, Alireza Sepahi, who was executed on October 5. After Maleki retracted those statements in court, the source said, “Officers would blindfold him, place a noose around his neck and kick away the chair beneath his feet, simulating an execution.” The outlet said he was held at the Soroush detention center, which is run by the Isfahan provincial police command. This account has not been independently confirmed.

Hengaw described Ebrahimi as a high-achieving medical student who was riding his motorcycle to his grandmother’s house when he was caught up in the crowd. Investigators later traced him through his phone, the group said. On January 23, state television aired the defendants’ confessions in a program titled “Shock Documentary: The Events of Dey 1404 in Isfahan,” according to IHR.

A retrial order, then a hanging

According to an informed source quoted by IHR, the two men’s lawyers, Amirsalar Davoudi and Shahbazi, persuaded Branch 39 of the Supreme Court to overturn the sentences. Branch Two of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court then reaffirmed them without a hearing, getting through roughly 8,000 pages of case files in under 48 hours. A later retrial request to the Supreme Court’s Branch 20 was rejected within 24 hours. The source said judges pointed “to pressure from security agencies on the case,” remarking “that observing formal procedures was more important than the lives of two young men.”

HRANA reported that defense lawyers had restricted access to the case files, that hearings were held by videoconference and that defendants received incomplete copies of their verdicts. Under a note to Article 48 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure, defendants in security cases must choose their lawyers from a list approved by the judiciary.

Davoudi himself is now in custody. IHR reported that he was arrested on October 11 at the Isfahan Revolutionary Court after publishing audio of the prison marriage ceremony of Alireza Sepahi and his fiancée, Mahshad Keshani. He faces charges that include “publishing falsehoods online to disturb public opinion” and “propaganda against the system,” and has been threatened with prosecution under Article 4 of the espionage law, IHR said.

“The scale of torture and violations of due process in this case is unconscionable,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. “When even human rights lawyers are arrested and persecuted for defending their clients, we must expect even more executions following grossly unfair trials.”

Three more face the gallows

IHR says three defendants in the case remain at imminent risk after the Supreme Court rejected their appeals: Abolfazl Ebrahimi, 18; Ali Dashti, 20; and Shervin Bagherian, who was 17 at the time of the alleged offence. Executing someone for a crime committed as a child is prohibited under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which Iran has ratified.

Amnesty International has documented Bagherian’s 21-day enforced disappearance after his arrest, beatings, and a forced “confession” broadcast on January 25. In July, after the public hanging of two defendants in Alikhani Square itself, Amnesty’s Heba Morayef said, “The Iranian authorities are unleashing a horrifying wave of executions and death sentences to punish and suppress dissent and project an image of strength and absolute control.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, raised the case at the UN General Assembly on October 28, Iran International reported.

By the numbers

• 9 people executed in the Alikhani Square case: two on July 19, two publicly in the square on July 28, one on August 20, two on October 5 and two on November 3 (IHR). Two of the nine were Afghan nationals.
• 107 days between the first and latest executions in the case, about one hanging every 12 days on average (calculation based on IHR’s dates).
• 62 people arrested, 16 formally indicted and at least 12 sentenced to death (IHR). HRANA counts 15 death sentences at first instance, one overturned and 14 upheld, 12 of them identified.
• 75% of the 12 identified death-row defendants have now been executed (calculation from IHR and HRANA figures).
• 691 executions recorded by IHR from January through October 2026, about 2.3 a day (calculation over 304 days). The total includes 36 protesters. Only 100 of the 691, or 14.5%, were officially announced.
• 77 executions in October alone by IHR’s count, only 13 of them announced. Hengaw, which uses its own sources and verification methods, counted 85.

Sources

• AFP via France 24, “Iran hangs two young men in latest executions over protests: NGOs,” Nov. 3, 2026
• AFP via Arab News, “Iran hangs two men over involvement in killing police officers” (includes Mizan statements), Nov. 3, 2026
• Iran Human Rights, report on the Nov. 3 executions
• Iran Human Rights, October 2026 execution report
• Iran Human Rights, Nov. 2 alert on imminent executions
• Iran Human Rights, on lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi’s arrest, Oct. 13, 2026
• Hengaw, “Iran executes young protesters Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi,” Nov. 3, 2026
• HRANA, “January Protests: Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi Executed”
• Amnesty International, July 28, 2026
• Iran International (Tier 2), mock-execution account, Nov. 3, 2026
• Iran International (Tier 2), final family visits, lawyer Shahbazi and Mai Sato, Nov. 2, 2026
• Iran International (Tier 2), on IHR’s October figures, Nov. 3, 2026

Notes: The account of Maleki’s simulated hanging comes from a single source via Iran International and has not been independently confirmed. The details of the retrial ruling, the 8,000-page review, the judges’ remarks and the treatment of Ebrahimi’s brother come from an informed source quoted by IHR and could not be independently verified. Reported ages differ: IHR’s birth dates make both men 19 at execution, while AFP gave Maleki’s age as 20 and Hengaw reported both as 20. Mizan is the judiciary’s official outlet, and its statements are presented as the state’s account. Tasnim !Unverified claim, Tasnim (IRGC-affiliated) and Fars !Unverified claim, Fars (IRGC-affiliated), which are affiliated with the IRGC, were not used as sources for this article. Execution totals vary by monitoring group because each relies on its own sources and verification standards.