Iran executes two men detained during January protests

Iran has executed Ali Hemmati and Majid Nikandish, two men detained during January protests in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Iran International reported, citing sources.

The executions were carried out at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences handed down by the city’s Revolutionary Court and the legal proceedings were completed, according to the Iranian judiciary.

The judiciary identified Hemmati and Nikandish as “field operatives” involved in what it described as an attempted coup. Iranian authorities accused the two men of involvement in the deaths of four security personnel and convicted them on charges including “enmity against God” and acts against national security.

Nikandish, 25, was from the city of Quchan in Razavi Khorasan province. He was arrested on January 20 and transferred to Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

Sources cited by Iran International said Nikandish was held in solitary confinement and subjected to interrogations intended to force him to confess. The same sources had previously reported that he faced an imminent execution after Branch One of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on May 15.

By Tamilla Hasanova