The Islamic Republic's judiciary announced early on Sunday, 8 November 2026, that Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh, three people detained during the protests of 8 and 9 January 2026 in Karaj, had been executed. According to the judiciary, the sentences were carried out after being upheld by the Supreme Court, and the confiscation of the three men's property is under way.
The Karaj Revolutionary Court had convicted the three protesters of "taking part in operational action" on behalf of Israel, the United States and what the judiciary calls "hostile groups". Eight other defendants in the same case were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison. Hamid Kazemi and Hassan Divband were held in Karaj Central Prison, and their case was heard by Branch 2 of the Karaj Revolutionary Court.
The judiciary's claims about the case
The judiciary claims that during the uprising the three men attacked government buildings with firearms, grenades and Molotov cocktails, set fire to public facilities and damaged a power substation in Karaj. According to the judiciary, Hassan Divband was arrested on 11 January following a report by the Alborz provincial intelligence department, and 10 others were later arrested on charges of helping him during the protests. No independent body has been able to examine these claims or gain access to the case file.
The charge of "collaborating with Israel and the United States" has been repeated again and again in recent months in the sentences handed to Dey protesters. Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center reported in September that the Islamic Republic's judiciary uses rushed trials, confessions extracted under torture and executions designed to spread fear in protest-related cases. According to the two organisations' review, murder was not even among the charges in 16 of 29 protest-related execution cases.
The wave of executions of Dey protesters
These executions came a few days after Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi were executed in the Alikhani Square case in Isfahan. The US State Department condemned the execution of protesters in Iran on Thursday, 5 November. Iran Human Rights says at least 81 people were executed on political charges between 1 January 2026 and the end of October 2026, and hundreds of other protesters still face the risk of death sentences.
Three Dey uprising protesters in Karaj were executed after the Supreme Court upheld their sentences, and their property is being confiscated.
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