Iranian authorities executed protester Mohammad Abbasi at dawn on May 13 in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. He is the 14th person executed in connection with the January 2026 protests.
Prison officials reportedly summoned Abbasi’s family for a visit, but when they arrived at the prison, they were denied the opportunity to see him. The family was later informed by phone that the execution had been carried out.
Abbasi was sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God” in connection with the alleged killing of a police officer by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
The sentences were issued by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, known as the “judge of death” and the “hanging judge” for his long record of sentencing protesters to death.
In the same case, the Supreme Court also upheld the 25-year prison sentence of Abbasi’s daughter, Fatemeh Abbasi, who is currently imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Attorney Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani had previously said that Branch 39 of the Supreme Court barred him and another independent lawyer from representing the defendants or reviewing their case files, despite serious concerns over the judicial process and the evidence presented against them, further undermining their right to a fair trial.
🔸 At least 32 people, including 14 protesters arrested during the January protests, have been executed on politically motivated charges since the outbreak of the war.
🔸 Death sentences in Iran are routinely handed down following grossly unfair trials, with defendants frequently denied access to independent legal counsel and convicted on the basis of forced “confessions” extracted under torture and coercion.
🔸 Under the cover of war, Iranian authorities are accelerating politically motivated executions at an unprecedented pace, emboldened by near-total impunity and a lack of sustained international outcry.
🔸 World leaders must place the ongoing human rights crisis in Iran, including the alarming wave of executions, at the center of all diplomatic engagement with the Islamic Republic’s authorities.