Iran hangs 2 protesters in public, crowd cries ‘dishonorable’ as security fires tear gas

Iran publicly hanged two young men Tuesday over their alleged roles in January’s nationwide anti-government protests, as onlookers chanted “Dishonorable, dishonorable!” before security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exiled Iranian opposition group.

Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi were hanged Tuesday in Isfahan’s Shahid Alikhani Square — where authorities alleged they committed offenses connected to the Jan. 8 protests, according to the NCRI and Iranian state media.

The NCRI said onlookers condemned the executions before security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. The opposition group also said security personnel had been deployed on rooftops and surrounding streets.

Iranian state media also reported the public executions, Reuters said, with Iran’s semi-official news agency Mehr saying they were carried out in Alikhani Square “in the presence of a group of people.”

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“Fearing public outrage over this brutal crime, the regime’s suppressive forces had deployed agents in the surrounding streets and on rooftops,” NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said in a statement shared on X.

The executions mark the latest escalation in Iran’s crackdown on protesters arrested during the nationwide demonstrations that began in late December and intensified in January.

Human rights groups have accused Iranian authorities of denying defendants due process, relying on coerced confessions and carrying out executions after unfair trials.

Iran’s judiciary, meanwhile, accused Badjani and Hosseinabadi of participating in the Jan. 8 killing of four members of the State Security Force during demonstrations in Shahid Alikhani Square.

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According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, Badjani and Hosseinabadi were convicted of moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” efsad-fil-arz, or “corruption on Earth,” as well as destruction and arson of public property, and acts that led to the deaths of four officers. Authorities also accused them of possessing firearms and Molotov cocktails.

The NCRI claimed Tuesday that the defendants were denied the right to choose their own lawyers, and even their court-appointed attorneys were denied access to the case files.

Iran publicly hanged Abolfazl Sepahi-Badjani Tuesday over his alleged role in January’s nationwide anti-government protests.

The judiciary, however, said the men had legal representation, appealed their convictions and were convicted using police reports, cellphone evidence, witness testimony, confessions and a crime scene reconstruction. 

The pair were said to be among 12 protesters sentenced to death in what has become known as the Alikhani Square case.

Two other defendants, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, were executed July 19, bringing the total number of executions in the case to four.

The U.N. experts warned this week that the remaining defendants face an imminent risk of execution.

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“The young men, aged between their late teens and early 20s, were reportedly arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, in some cases being subjected to enforced disappearance, ill-treated and accused of involvement in the killing of four security force members, as well as arson and vandalism during the Jan. 8, 2026, protests in Shahid Alikhani Square in Isfahan,” U.N. experts said in a statement.

The statement also said all defendants were sentenced to death during a single closed-door hearing without clarity about each individual’s alleged responsibility, calling the proceedings a violation of international fair trial standards.

Human Rights Watch said this week that at least 50 people have been executed over the past four months on what it described as vague national security charges.

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“By resorting once again to the medieval practice of public hangings, the Islamic Republic is trying to instill fear throughout society and deter future protests,” Iran Human Rights Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a post shared on X.

“Public executions are a cruel form of state terror that the international community must not tolerate,” he added.

The protests across Iran began in late December amid a deepening economic crisis before expanding into one of the largest anti-government movements in the Islamic Republic’s history.