Iran executes two men over alleged mosque attack as crackdown deepens

Iran has executed two men convicted over an alleged attack on a mosque during protests that erupted in late 2025 and early 2026, according to the judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency. The men, identified as Mehrdad Mohammadi-Nia and Ashkan Maleki, were executed after the Supreme Court upheld their sentences. Iranian authorities said they were among the main perpetrators of an attack on the Jafari Mosque in Tehran's Gisha neighbourhood.

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The judiciary said the two were convicted of setting fire to the mosque, damaging public property, clashing with security forces, blocking roads and activities against national security. It also said their assets were ordered confiscated. The specific capital charge under which they were sentenced was not stated in the judiciary's announcement.

The executions were reported on Monday, 1 June 2026, and came as Amnesty International said at least 39 political executions had been carried out since the war began in February. The case is part of a wider security and judicial response to the protests that began in late December 2025 after the collapse of the country's currency, the rial. Those protests spread rapidly to nearly all Iranian cities, and security forces killed thousands of people during a crackdown on 8 and 9 January, according to the supplied material.

Iran's own Supreme Council of National Security acknowledged a death toll of more than 3,000, while the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran put the figure at a minimum of 5,000. The same material says the Islamic Republic imposed a strict internet blackout on 8 January, making verification difficult. The executions also add to concerns about the scale of arrests and prosecutions since the war began.

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Amnesty International said in a report published last Thursday that Iranian authorities had arrested more than 6,000 people, including protesters, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders. It said authorities had accelerated prosecutions, including capital cases, and documented enforced disappearances, torture, forced confessions and unfair trials. The organisation said at least 39 political executions had been carried out during the same period, while Iran's overall execution rate remains far higher.

The figures cited by Amnesty place the case within a broader pattern of capital punishment in Iran. Its most recent annual report recorded at least 2,159 executions in Iran in 2025, the highest figure for any country and the majority of 2,700 executions documented worldwide that year. That context matters because the latest executions are not isolated events, but part of a continuing dispute over how the authorities are handling unrest, dissent and alleged security offences.

The case also highlights the role of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in confirming sentences linked to politically sensitive unrest. What remains unclear from the available material is the exact capital offence used in the sentencing and whether the men had any further legal avenues after the Supreme Court ruling. It is also not clear how many other people remain under sentence in related cases, or whether further executions are expected.

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