IRAN - Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia

IRAN - Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia executed in Ghezel-Hesar on June 1

June 1, 2026:

June 1, 2026 - IRAN. Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia executed in Ghezel-Hesar on June 1

Political prisoners arrested during the January 2026 protests

According to information obtained by Hengaw, the death sentences of Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia were carried out at dawn on June 1, 2026, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. The executions were carried out in secret, and the two prisoners were denied a final visit with their families.

Concerns remain high for their co-defendant, Arman Marefati, a 38-year-old Kurdish prisoner from Saqqez, who remains at risk of execution and is currently being held in Great Tehran Penitentiary.

Hours after the executions, Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of Iran’s judiciary, published a report confirming that the sentences had been carried out.

Maleki and Mohammadinia had previously been sentenced to death alongside Marefati in a joint case by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. The death sentences were issued on charges of moharebeh, based on forced confessions extracted under torture and intense pressure by security agencies.

Iranian judicial authorities accused the three men of setting fire to the Jafari Mosque and the Imam Hadi Seminary in Tehran’s Gisha neighborhood, as well as damaging public property during protests on the evening of Jan. 9, 2026.

State security institutions had earlier broadcast coerced confessions through state television and Mizan News Agency, portraying the three detainees as having carried out “operational actions on behalf of Israel and hostile governments.” These allegations formed the basis of the case that ultimately led to the executions of Maleki and Mohammadinia.

Throughout their detention in Ghezel Hesar Prison and during judicial proceedings, both men were denied access to legal counsel of their own choosing and other fundamental fair trial guarantees.

With the executions now carried out, concerns have intensified over the fate of Arman Marefati, whose death sentence remains in place.

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights strongly condemns the executions, describing them as a form of state killing, political retaliation and a grave violation of the right to life. Hengaw calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and other international human rights bodies to take urgent action to prevent the execution of Arman Marefati and other political prisoners on death row in Iran.

https://hengaw.net/en/news/2026/05/article-184