State-run media in Iran reported on Tuesday, July 28, that the Iranian regime had carried out the executions of Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi in connection with the January 2026 protests in Malek Shahr, a district of Isfahan.
With these executions, four of the 12 defendants in this case in Isfahan have now been executed.
News of the executions of these two additional defendants in the so-called Alikhani Square case in Isfahan was released as numerous messages and videos on social media showed overnight gatherings of people protesting the executions, coinciding with the dawn call to prayer.
The state-run Fars News Agency and Mehr News Agency published identical reports stating that the executions were carried out publicly in Alikhani Square.
State-run media, including the Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, identified the two men as “among those responsible for the killing of four Law Enforcement Command officers” in Isfahan’s “Alikhani Square” and claimed that during the January 8 protests they had “injured and set these officers on fire.”
The case relates to the events of January 8 in the area around Ali Khani Square, where officials of the Iranian regime said that four members of the Basij paramilitary force and the Special Units police were killed.
Following those deaths, 59 people were arrested in Isfahan, and a large criminal case was opened against them.
Meanwhile, several citizen reports and videos posted on social media early Tuesday showed large numbers of people gathering in streets near the execution site to protest the executions, amid a heavy security presence and heightened tensions.
Some of the videos show and capture protesters chanting “Shameless, shameless” while the dawn call to prayer was broadcast during the executions, as security forces rode motorcycles through the crowd.
Reports have also circulated on social media of clashes between protesters and the Special Units police at the site, as well as internet disruptions across Isfahan. Radio Farda said it could not independently verify these reports.
The executions were carried out early Tuesday, July 28, 2026, just hours after Mai Sato, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, announced that a group of UN experts had urged the Iranian regime to immediately revoke the death sentences of the remaining 10 young men charged in this case in Isfahan.
کارشناسان سازمان ملل احکام اعدام صادر شده برای ۱۲ مرد جوان به دلیل مشارکت در اعتراضات ژانویه ۲۰۲۶ را محکوم کرده و خواستار توقف فوری اعدامها شدند.
کارشناسان اعلام کردند که محاکمه گروهی و غیرعلنی این متهمان با استانداردهای دادرسی عادلانه مغایرت دارد و نسبت به بازداشتهای…— Mai Sato (@drmaisato) July 27, 2026
Earlier, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran had also called on the Iranian judiciary to halt the executions of protesters arrested during the January demonstrations, including the defendants in this case.
The 12 protesters arrested in Isfahan, who were in their late teens or early twenties at the time of their arrests, were sentenced to death in a closed-door mass trial. Before the two men executed on Tuesday morning, two others—Gol Mohammad Mohammadi and Erfan Esfandiari—were executed on July 19.
According to experts, the defendants’ closed-door mass trial violated fair trial standards. They say the death sentences were based on forced confessions broadcast on state television, while the charges and individual criminal responsibility of each defendant were not clearly established.
