Three men arrested during January anti-government protests were executed in Iran, bbc.com reported.
The executions follow a series of judicial actions tied to nationwide unrest that began early in the year. While the British Broadcasting Corporation reported the three deaths, other outlets documented parallel sentences and differing official and activist casualty figures.
Iran’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for Arman Marefati, a 38-year-old fruit seller originally from Saqqez County who lived in Tehran, according to voanews.com.
Marefati was convicted in March 2026 by an Islamic revolutionary court in Tehran on charges alleging participation in activities against national security, entering religious sites with the intent to destroy them, and participating in the burning of a mosque and a religious seminary, voanews.com reported.
He was transferred from Greater Tehran Prison to Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj in June. His two co-defendants in the case, Mehrdad Mohammadiania and Ashkan Maleki, were executed in June after conviction for allegedly cooperating with Israel and hostile governments, creating insecurity and public fear, destroying and setting fire to public property, and participating in activities against national security, voanews.com reported.
Amnesty International stated the executions were carried out without advance notice to their families or lawyers.
Separately, Iran executed Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi after they were convicted over the killing of four police officers during the January 2026 protests in Isfahan. Human rights groups reported allegations of torture and unfair trials in those proceedings.
Mousavi was arrested on December 18, 2024, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Human rights organizations have documented cases in which defendants faced charges including espionage and national security offenses, often resulting from confessions broadcast on Iranian state television.
Discrepancies remain regarding the overall death toll from the unrest. Iran has claimed the number of deaths related to the protests to be 3,038, while U.S. President Donald Trump stated in September that Iran had killed 72,000 of its citizens this year, voanews.com reported. From the outset, demonstrators called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
President Trump accused Iranian officials of crimes against humanity over the regime’s repression, killing, and execution of protesters, calling for them to be brought to justice. Meanwhile, human rights organizations continue to document cases of denied legal access and reliance on unverified confessions.
