An Iranian woman protests in Tehran, Iran in October 2022. Image: AP
May 3, 2026, 10:39 amMay 3, 2026, 10:41 am
In Iran, for the first time in years, a death sentence in connection with the women’s movement was carried out in autumn 2022. The man, Mehrab Abdollahsadeh, was accused of killing a security guard during protests in the northwestern city of Urmia, Iranian state media reported. The execution took place on Sunday morning.
Abdollahsadeh had been in custody since October 2022, according to the human rights organization Iran Human Rights. The verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court last December and an appeal was rejected in January, as the Norway-based organization reported. According to the report, the 27-year-old worked as a barber before his imprisonment.
Human rights activists accuse the judiciary of torture
Iran Human Rights accused the Iranian judiciary of subjecting the man to psychological and physical torture for 42 days to force a confession. Abdollahsadeh is said to have denied the allegations in court. Human rights activists have been criticizing the proceedings for years as unfair and politically motivated.
On Wednesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the numerous arrests and executions in Iran in recent weeks. In January, there were mass protests against the political leadership in the face of an already simmering economic crisis. Iran’s security apparatus brutally suppressed the protests. They were the most serious uprisings since the protests in autumn 2022.
The trigger for the mass demonstrations at the time under the motto “Woman, Life, Freedom” was the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, who died in custody of the moral police. She is said to have violated Islamic dress codes. Since then, the judiciary has executed more than a dozen men. (sda/dpa)