Iran executes two protesters days after co-defendant’s hanging amid rights concerns

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two Iranians arrested during the January protests were executed on Sunday for allegedly attacking a restricted military site, Tehran’s state media reported. The executions come as human rights watchdogs have warned that authorities may be using the ongoing Iran-Israel-US war to fast-track trials and carry out executions of dissidents.

Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahed-Parast were involved in the January “riots” and had allegedly attempted to attack a “classified military site” in Tehran.

According to Tasnim, the two had reportedly “participated in damaging and setting fire to the sensitive location and attempted to gain access to its arms depot,” and were “executed by hanging following legal proceedings.”

Biglari and Vahed-Parast were tried in Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court and convicted on charges of moharebeh - waging war against God, efsad‑e‑fel‑arz - spreading corruption on earth, and arson of public property. The charges stemmed from an early January fire at the Kaveh Basij Base in eastern Tehran.

Their attorney, Hassan Aghakhani, told the pro-reform media outlet Emtedad in mid-February that he had been denied access to the case files and that the trial concluded within 30 days of the arrests.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International in a late March report warned of the “imminent execution” of the two adding that the "confessions" used for their conviction were extracted under "prolonged solitary confinement and death threats at gunpoint.

Importantly, the execution of Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahed-Parast came shortly after their co‑defendant, Amirhossein Hatami, was executed on Thursday.

Hatami, a 19‑year‑old protester, was hanged following his conviction in the same case tied to alleged attacks on a Basij base armory during the January protests.

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