The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) announced that between July 28 and August 3, at least 26 prisoners were executed in prisons across Iran. The council stressed that the actual number of executions is higher than the reported figure and linked the increase in executions to escalating domestic and international crises, as well as the Iranian regime’s concern over the spread of protests.
According to the report, the Iranian regime’s Judiciary announced on Monday, August 3, that Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat had been executed on charges of “espionage and intelligence cooperation with Israel.”
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The NCRI also reported that political prisoner Arvin Kheirkhahan, who had been arrested during the Dey (December–January) protests, was executed in Shahrud in the early hours of Saturday, August 1. The council noted that three days after the execution, the Iranian regime’s Judiciary had still not released any official statement or details regarding his case.
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According to the published figures, six more prisoners were executed in various prisons on Saturday, August 1. Those identified were Mohammad Ali Narouei and Mohammad Bakhsh Shahbakhsh in Damghan, Farzad Feyzi and Hassan Mousavi in Shiraz, and Mohammad Davoudi and Esmaeil Aghaei in Semnan. The council also reported that Alijan Garavand had been executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison on Thursday, July 30.
The report further states that on Wednesday, July 29, another 10 prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar, Taybad, Gorgan, and Urmia prisons. Among those identified were Seyed Ahmad Tabatabaei Zavareh, Hassan Khalili, Nader Abil, Ezzat Kazemzadeh, Sina Bahrami, and Farzad Sobhani. According to the council, Farzad Sobhani was 16 years old at the time of the offense attributed to him.
The NCRI also reported that on Tuesday, July 28, in addition to the executed uprising prisoners Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari, four other prisoners—Amir Ali Soleimani, Mokhtar Alizadeh, Ali Rasouli, and one unidentified prisoner—were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison.
According to the report, in the preceding days, Eshagh Sistani was executed in Ferdows; Ehsan Marei in Mashhad; Shamseddin Afshari and Faraj Yahyaei in Zanjan; and Amir Abbas Hatami, Javad Mirhosseini, and Sardar Ghaderi in Gonbad-e Kavus and Urmia.
At the end of its report, the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on the United Nations and other international organizations to take urgent action to halt executions in Iran. The council also called for the dispatch of an international fact-finding mission to visit Iran’s prisons and meet with prisoners, particularly political prisoners.
