Qazvin: Islamic Republic intelligence announces arrest of 39 protesters from the December–January uprising

The Intelligence Directorate-General of Qazvin province announced on Monday, 19 October 2026, that it had arrested 39 people in connection with the uprising of December 2025–January 2026. Nine months after the uprising, the wave of arrests of the December–January protesters continues in cities across Iran, and Qazvin is the latest city for which the Islamic Republic's security bodies have published arrest figures.

In its statement, the Ministry of Intelligence called the detainees "mercenaries of the American-Zionist enemy" and claimed they operated in eight "organised teams". It accused them of destroying and setting fire to houses, shops, banks, cars and a fuel station in Qazvin, and claimed that 10 of them killed "several" officers while setting fire to that station, without stating the number or identity of the officers.

Charges that lead to executions

The Ministry of Intelligence statement did not give the names of any of the detainees, where they are held or whether they have access to a lawyer, and no independent source has confirmed its claims. Asghar Askari, Qazvin's prosecutor, said in June that judicial cases had been opened against a number of the December–January detainees in the province on charges such as "assembly and collusion against national security", premeditated murder, destruction and, in some cases, "corruption on earth", a charge that has repeatedly led to death sentences in the Islamic Republic's revolutionary courts.

Attributing the murder of officers to protesters, without presenting evidence and without the defendants having access to a lawyer of their choice, is a pattern also seen in the execution cases of earlier protesters, and in many of them the verdict was based on forced confessions broadcast by state media.

The wave of arrests in other cities

A few days before the arrests in Qazvin were announced, Ilam's intelligence department also reported the arrest of 11 people in Malekshahi on charges of a role in the December–January uprising. Before that, security bodies had reported the arrest of 31 people in Sirjan and 126 in Tehran province on the same charges. At the same time, the Karaj revolutionary court sentenced Homayoun Shabankar, a 22-year-old December–January protester, to death.

The Ministry of Intelligence has arrested 39 citizens of Qazvin but has given neither their names nor any witness for its claims.