The role of three Isfahan judicial officials in death sentences for January uprising protesters

Three Islamic Republic judicial officials in Isfahan, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Morteza Barati and Asadollah Jafari, played the leading role in issuing death sentences for protesters of the January 2026 uprising, including in the Alikhani Square case. An informed source gave this information to Iran International on Tuesday 3 November 2026, the same day two young protesters in the case were executed.

According to the source, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, judge of Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court, and Morteza Barati, an associate judge of the same branch, have issued death sentences in dozens of cases of people detained during the January 2026 uprising. Barati would go to the prison in person to follow up on the carrying out of the sentences. According to the same source, Asadollah Jafari, head of the judiciary of Isfahan province, was also directly involved in the handling of the cases and the death sentences.

Alikhani Square case: nine executions

After the gatherings of 8 January 2026 in Isfahan, around 60 people were arrested, and the Revolutionary Court sentenced 12 of them to death. With the execution of Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, both aged 20, at dawn on Tuesday, the number of people executed in this case rose to nine; seven others had been executed between 19 July and 5 October. The background of this case shows that no public and reliable evidence or witnesses have been made public.

Mizan news agency, affiliated with the judiciary, has claimed that those executed were involved in the killing of four police officers, but it has neither published the interrogation transcripts nor said how the confessions were obtained. According to human rights sources, Amirhossein Maleki had been tortured with a mock execution after retracting his confession. UN human rights experts have described the proceedings as opaque and unfair, and Amnesty International has pointed to vague charges, forced confessions and the fact that some defendants were under 18 at the time of the alleged offences.

European and British sanctions

The European Union has sanctioned all three officials for human rights violations. Morteza Barati has been on the EU sanctions list since February–March 2023, and the United Kingdom and Canada have also sanctioned him and Asadollah Jafari. In European sanctions documents, Jafari is identified as head of the Isfahan judiciary.

Jafari had previously said that by June this year thousands of cases had been opened against protesters in Isfahan province and hundreds of indictments had been issued.

After Tuesday's executions, the office of Prince Reza Pahlavi announced that those who ordered and carried out these executions will be held accountable. Shervin Bagherian and Ali Dashti, two other defendants in the same case, remain at risk of execution.

The three officials who issued the death sentences for Isfahan's protesters were already on the European sanctions list.