By Kayhan Life Staff and Reuters: Iran executed two men convicted of attempting to storm a military facility and access an armory during unrest in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news outlet reported.
The men, identified as Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, were executed at dawn on Apr. 5, 2026, according to Mizan. They had been arrested following nationwide anti-government protests repressed by the Islamic Republic in the biggest crackdown in its history.
The case stems from a fire at the Kaveh Basij base on Damavand Street in Tehran during protests on Jan. 8, 2026. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operates Basij bases, which are used to suppress protests.
Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences for the two defendants, who were accused of attempting to steal weapons and military equipment, Mizan said.
Biglari and Vahedparast were among a group of four in the same case who faced execution, according to Amnesty International. In a recent report, Amnesty said 11 men faced a risk of imminent execution for participating in the protests. The rights group said they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention before being convicted in trials that relied on forced confessions.
Seven people were arrested in connection with the Kaveh Basij case. Amirhossein Hatami, Biglari, Vahedparast Kalur, Abolfazl Salehi Siavoshani, and Ali Fahim received death sentences.
On April 2, 2026, Iran executed 18-year-old Amirhossein Hatami, convicted in a case from the nationwide anti-government protests. The following week, informed sources said the other prisoners sentenced to death in the same case were transferred to solitary confinement and told their executions would soon be carried out.
Lawyers in the case had said the claims in the indictment contradicted evidence in the file, including videos from the scene. In those videos, plainclothes agents were seen pushing people into the Basij building, locking the doors, and setting the site on fire.
After the start of the war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, the Islamic Republic accelerated executions in political and security-related cases. In the past week alone, nine political prisoners were executed.
In a recent report, Amnesty said 11 men faced a risk of imminent execution for participation in the protests.
They were “subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention”, before conviction in “grossly unfair trials that relied on forced confessions”, it added.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
