Iran executed three men on Sunday after convicting them of carrying out operations on behalf of Israel and the United States during the anti-government protests that swept the country in January, the judiciary said.
Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh were hanged after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, the judiciary’s Mizan Online outlet reported. Their property was also ordered confiscated. Eight other defendants in the same case were sentenced to prison terms of between five and ten years.
The three were arrested after the protests of 8 and 9 January in Karaj, a city west of Tehran. The judiciary said they had taken part in armed attacks during the unrest, using Molotov cocktails, grenades, firearms and bladed weapons, and had set fire to public facilities. It accused Divband of coordinating the group’s activities, Kazemi of manufacturing Molotov cocktails and homemade grenades, and Zanganeh of damaging electrical infrastructure and cutting power in parts of the city.
The convictions were handed down under a law on intensifying punishment for espionage and cooperation with Israel and hostile countries, which Iran expanded after the war with the United States and Israel began in February. The charge was “participating in operational activities on behalf of Israel, the United States and hostile groups”.
The claims of foreign direction rest entirely on Iranian judiciary sources. No evidence of actual espionage or contact with foreign governments has been published, and the judiciary has given no detail of the men’s access to lawyers, how the hearings were conducted, or where the executions took place, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Rights groups have warned that the expanded espionage law is being used to impose death sentences on protesters without proof of foreign links. HRANA said it had documented at least 2,003 executions in Iran in the year to 8 October, about 29 per cent more than the previous year.
The January unrest began in late December 2025 as protests over the collapsing currency and rising living costs, before spreading across the country and turning into broader anti-government demonstrations. Official figures put the death toll at more than 3,000 people, including security personnel, while rights groups based outside Iran have cited higher figures. Earlier this month Iran executed two other men over the killing of police officers during the same protests in Isfahan.
Sources: Press TV, “Three foreign-backed armed rioters convicted of crimes against Iran’s national security executed”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/11/08/780234/three-foreign-backed-armed-rioters-executed); ThisDay, “Iran executes three men over alleged links to US, Israel during protests”, 8 November 2026 (https://thisday.com.ng/iran-executes-three-men-over-alleged-links-to-us-israel-during-protests/); HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency).
