Iran courts issue death sentences amid rising executions crackdown
At least two people detained during protests between December 2025 and January 2026 have been sentenced to death in Iran, as human rights organizations report a broader escalation in executions and concerns over the destruction of evidence linked to detainees. The rulings come amid allegations of accelerated judicial action against political defendants and increasing use of capital punishment following recent unrest.
One of the convicted individuals, Arman Marefati, a 30-year-old Kurdish civilian from Saqqez in Kurdistan province, received a death sentence from a revolutionary court in Tehran. He was accused of “enmity against God” in connection with an alleged arson attack targeting a mosque and seminary during protests in January 2026 in the Gisha district of Tehran. Another detainee, Esmaeil Ramazanpour, a 38-year-old resident of Yazd, was also sentenced to death after being convicted on charges including moharebeh, or enmity against God, and actions described as threatening internal national security. His case also included allegations of burning a municipal building, with rights groups reporting that he was held in pretrial detention under torture and denied access to legal counsel of his choice.
The sentencing takes place in a wider context of intensified state repression described by human rights monitors as linked to what authorities refer to as wartime conditions. Since military strikes attributed to the United States and Israel began on 28 February 2026, rights organizations report that at least 36 people have been executed on political charges, including individuals connected to the January protests. They also estimate that at least 78 detainees remain under active death sentences, facing imminent risk of execution. Independent human rights documentation suggests that more than 600 executions have taken place since the beginning of 2026, with concerns that confessions obtained under coercion are being used in rapid judicial proceedings.
Separately, reports from families and rights advocates indicate that records linked to protest-related deaths have been removed from the electronic database of Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran. Relatives of victims say this has made it impossible to locate graves, raising fears of systematic erasure of evidence. The issue follows earlier incidents in which authorities reportedly demolished sections of the cemetery containing graves of political prisoners executed in the 1980s, reinforcing allegations of both physical and digital attempts to obscure the history of state violence.
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