Iran has executed three men connected to recent anti-government protests, human rights groups have said, amid what they describe as a broader escalation in the use of the death penalty against political prisoners.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights organisation said on X that the three men, identified as Mehdi Rasouli, Mohammadreza Miri and Ebrahim Dolatabadi, were executed in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
IHR said they were arrested during protests in January in the city and were subsequently sentenced to death after what it described as “grossly unfair trials” before Revolutionary Courts.
At least 28 political prisoners have been executed in Iran since March 18, including 14 people arrested during protests, 10 linked to banned opposition groups, and four accused of spying for Israel, said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
“This number of executions of political prisoners in such a short time is unprecedented in at least the last three decades,” Mr Amiry-Moghaddam told The National.
He urged the international community, particularly the EU, to respond more forcefully, warning that without increased political pressure, executions could continue apace in the coming weeks and months.
Hengaw, another Norway-based rights group that monitors Iran, said Dolatabadi, a father of two, was executed in Mashhad's Vakilabad Prison at dawn on Sunday six days after sentencing. It said that "no credible evidence was presented against Dolatabadi and that his judicial proceedings lacked transparency and due process".
Hengaw said Rasouli, 25, from Kashmar, and Miri, 21, from Mashhad, were also executed at Vakilabad Prison on the same morning. It said that both were "sentenced to death based on forced confessions obtained under torture".
The judiciary's Mizan Online website confirmed the executions, saying they had been convicted of involvement in violent unrest in Mashhad in January 2025.
Iranian authorities have previously defended their judicial processes in national security cases and accused foreign-based rights groups of politicising the legal system.
Since the US and Israel began military action against Iran on February 28, human rights organisations have reported an increase in executions in the Islamic republic, particularly among people accused of security-related offences.
The rights groups say this has taken place against a backdrop of heightened political tension and an intensified crackdown on dissent, with cases increasingly framed by authorities as matters of national security.
A joint report by IHR and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said Iran executed at least 1,639 people last year, the highest number since 1989 and an increase of nearly 70 per cent compared with the previous year.
The rights group said the figure represented an “absolute minimum”, noting that many executions are not reported in Iran's official media and are only recorded when confirmed by at least two independent sources.
The report warned that the rate of executions could rise further amid the crackdown following the January protests and the wider conflict with the US and Israel, adding that if Iran “survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression”.
