Iran executed two men arrested during the nationwide protests that swept the country in January, marking the latest use of capital punishment against defendants whose cases emerged from the unrest. Iranian authorities, however, say the two were not sentenced merely for participating in demonstrations but were involved in violent acts during clashes in Mashhad that left four security personnel dead.
The judiciary announced on September 30 that Ali Hemmati Sistani and Majid Nikandish were executed after their death sentences were upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Both had been arrested following unrest on January 8 and 9 in the Tabarsi district of Mashhad, one of the locations where demonstrations escalated into violent confrontations.
Mizan, the judiciary’s official news agency, described the two men as organizers and active participants in the unrest. According to the judiciary’s account, protesters in the area damaged and set fire to shops, banks, buses and other public property, blocked streets and clashed with security forces. Four members of the security forces were killed during the violence. The government says Hemmati and Nikandish personally participated in some of the violence.
According to statements attributed to Hemmati by Mizan, he admitted that he and Nikandish attacked and set fire to a chain store and later encountered two Basij members who were being beaten by a crowd. Hemmati was quoted as saying that he stabbed one of them twice before Nikandish took the knife and stabbed the other. Nikandish was quoted as saying that he carried a knife and three Molotov cocktails during the unrest, filmed events and sent footage to a number outside Iran. The judiciary also accused him of setting fire to a bank, damaging public property and attacking the store alongside Hemmati. Authorities said merchandise taken from the store was subsequently discovered at Hemmati’s home.
These allegations are important for understanding the cases. The judiciary is not presenting Hemmati and Nikandish simply as protesters sentenced to death for demonstrating against the government. It alleges that they participated directly in serious violence during unrest in which four security personnel were killed.
At the same time, the public account leaves significant questions about the legal proceedings unanswered. Mizan says both defendants had lawyers, were tried in court and that their convictions were reviewed and upheld by the Supreme Court. But its report does not clearly identify the precise criminal charge that formed the legal basis for the death sentences or explain whether either defendant was convicted specifically of killing any of the four security personnel.
Much of the detailed public evidence presented by the judiciary also consists of confessions attributed to the defendants. Iranian human-rights organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about reliance on confessions in political and national-security cases, particularly when independent information about detention conditions and access to counsel is limited.
The executions come amid ongoing debates over the government’s response to the January protests. The demonstrations began in December 2025 and eventually spread across all 31 provinces and more than 200 cities, according to the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. Iranian authorities have put the death toll at 3,038, while the UN mission says it has substantial grounds to believe the actual number was significantly higher.
The UN investigators have accused Iranian security forces of using lethal force against protesters as well as bystanders, including children, and concluded that some documented acts - including killings, imprisonment and torture - amounted to crimes against humanity. Iranian authorities have disputed international accounts of the unrest and have portrayed the events as a foreign-backed effort to destabilize the country.
The protests started off predominantly peaceful, driven by widespread economic grievances. However, significant violence against security forces unfolded amid the protests as well, which appears to have been encouraged by outside actors. This led to a bloody crackdown on the protests that left thousands dead, including many innocents who wanted simply to make their voices heard.
The executions therefore illustrate one of the central difficulties in assessing the aftermath of the January protests: deep concerns about due process make it difficult to independently evaluate the government’s claims against individual defendants. While the government has charged defendants with serious crimes, the proceedings have been marred by rushed trials, limited access to lawyers, accusations of torture, coerced confessions and the widespread use of capital punishment before guilt has been definitively established.
The UN fact-finding mission has called on Iran to halt pending executions, establish a moratorium on the death penalty and release people arbitrarily detained in connection with the protests.
The executions of Hemmati and Nikandish also come as Iran continues to carry out death sentences in other national-security cases. In another recent case, the judiciary announced the execution of Hossein Pedaran, an Iranian citizen convicted of spying for Israel and allegedly providing Mossad with information about sensitive military facilities in Isfahan Province. His case was unrelated to the protests.
For the families of those arrested after January’s unrest, the executions in Mashhad demonstrate that the judicial consequences of the protests are still unfolding months later. They also underscore the need to distinguish between what Iranian authorities allege happened during violent episodes of the unrest and what can be independently established about individual defendants and the judicial process that ultimately sends them to the gallows.