Iran announces execution of two anti-government protesters

Iran’s judiciary announced that two men were hanged on Sunday (July 19, 2026) over charges relating to anti-government protests that peaked in January, having begun a month earlier over economic grievances.

The two men, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi, were found guilty of “tying police officers to a road sign with ropes, injuring them with stones, dousing them with gasoline, and setting them on fire” in the central city of Isfahan, said the judiciary.

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The indictment stated that the two individuals had “filmed the scene of the killing and transmitted the footage to television channels” abroad.

The statement did not specify the dates of their arrest or trial, and did not give the men’s ages.

In late December, a protest movement initially sparked by the high cost of living rapidly evolved into widespread anti-government demonstrations that peaked on January 8 and 9.

Iranian authorities reported more than 3,000 deaths, attributing the violence to “terrorist acts” orchestrated by the United States and Israel, while foreign-based NGOs maintain that security forces fired on protesters.

U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened at the time to intervene militarily in Iran before the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack on the country on February 28, triggering the West Asia war.

Since then, arrests and executions have multiplied in the country, linked both to the conflict and to the protests that took place earlier in the year.

In 2025, the authorities executed at least 1,639 people, the largest number for any year since 1989, according to the NGOs Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).

According to Amnesty International, Iran is responsible for the second most executions of any country, after China.