Iran has carried out the first known executions linked to recent anti-government protests, hanging three men convicted of قتل police officers during unrest earlier this year, according to state media. Among those executed was teenager Saleh Mohammadi, who was reported to be a member of Iran’s national wrestling team. The executions were carried out on Thursday in Qom province after the country’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences.

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Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported that Mohammadi, along with Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davoudi, had been found guilty of killing two police officers in separate incidents.

First executions tied to protests

The men were also convicted of “moharebeh”, or waging war against God, a charge frequently used by Iranian authorities in cases involving political dissent and protest activity.

The executions mark the first hangings directly connected to the wave of protests that began in December and intensified in January.

Rights groups raise concerns

Human rights organisations have strongly criticised the process leading to the executions. They allege the men were forced to confess under torture and were denied fair trials.

The protests themselves were met with a severe crackdown by Iranian authorities. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, thousands of people were killed during the unrest.

The demonstrations, which spread across all 31 provinces and reached around 180 cities and towns, were initially triggered by economic grievances, including currency collapse and rising living costs. They later evolved into broader calls for political reform.

Additional execution draws international reaction

The hangings came a day after Iran executed Kouroush Keyvani, a dual national convicted of spying for Israel.

Sweden’s foreign minister criticised the case, stating that the legal process leading to the execution had not met acceptable standards.

Keyvani was reportedly detained during last year’s brief conflict between Iran and Israel, though details surrounding his arrest remain limited.

Ongoing tensions and international scrutiny

The executions have drawn renewed attention to Iran’s handling of dissent and the use of capital punishment in politically sensitive cases.

Earlier in the year, Donald Trump warned that “strong action” could follow if protesters were executed, while Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said there were no plans for such measures at the time.

In at least one other case, a detained protester reportedly facing execution was later released on bail, with authorities denying that a death sentence had been issued.

The broader situation in Iran remains difficult to assess, with communications heavily restricted during the protests. Activists say the scale and severity of the crackdown were unprecedented in recent years.

The developments come amid ongoing regional tensions following military strikes involving Iran, the United States and Israel, further complicating the international response.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 20 March 2026

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They spare no one but themselves !

This is very sad. Saleh Mohammadi had been a member of Iran's national freestyle wrestling team. He turned 19 only a week before his execution. RIP

2 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

This is very sad. Saleh Mohammadi had been a member of Iran's national freestyle wrestling team. He turned 19 only a week before his execution. RIP

Can't remember you saying RIP to the 165 civilians, mostly schoolgirls a couple of weeks ago when your country dropped a big bomb on an Iranian school.

Morally blinkered.

39 minutes ago, JimCM said:

Can't remember you saying RIP to the 165 civilians, mostly schoolgirls a couple of weeks ago when your country dropped a big bomb on an Iranian school.

Morally blinkered.

The tragic loss of life in the missile strike on the school was extensively covered in the mainstream media, and was the very last thing the US would have wanted to happen. The taxpayer funded SBS news in Australia that I watch devoted a few seconds to the murder of these 3 - blink and you would have missed it. An obvious embarrassment to the network that regularly shows long interviews with people who have been affected by Israeli air strikes. If you think there’s no moral difference between the cold blooded murder of people and a tragic mistake in an attack on the military base of an enemy then you’re the one who’s morally blinkered.

54 minutes ago, JimCM said:

Can't remember you saying RIP to the 165 civilians, mostly schoolgirls a couple of weeks ago when your country dropped a big bomb on an Iranian school.

Morally blinkered.

9 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

The tragic loss of life in the missile strike on the school was extensively covered in the mainstream media, and was the very last thing the US would have wanted to happen. The taxpayer funded SBS news in Australia that I watch devoted a few seconds to the murder of these 3 - blink and you would have missed it. An obvious embarrassment to the network that regularly shows long interviews with people who have been affected by Israeli air strikes. If you think there’s no moral difference between the cold blooded murder of people and a tragic mistake in an attack on the military base of an enemy then you’re the one who’s morally blinkered.

Omg, you'll be saying next that the Israeli didn't tell t he yanks to hit the school or that the millions killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were 'mistakes'. Don't believe the Western propaganda or you look foolish.

3 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

He turned 19 only a week before his execution. RIP

Older than all the 150 or so schoolgirls killed by your country on orders of your 'other' country. But he gets a RIP because he was a wrestler 😠

4 minutes ago, JimCM said:

Omg, you'll be saying next that the Israeli didn't tell t he yanks to hit the school or that the millions killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were 'mistakes'. Don't believe the Western propaganda or you look foolish.

What possible benefit could it have been for the US to hit the school? A public relations nightmare. Only the likes of the Iranian government or Hamas deliberately kill civilians and revel in the publicity.

Strong fodder to feed the masses to finally revolt, IMO.

2 hours ago, CygnusX1 said:

The tragic loss of life in the missile strike on the school was extensively covered in the mainstream media, and was the very last thing the US would have wanted to happen. The taxpayer funded SBS news in Australia that I watch devoted a few seconds to the murder of these 3 - blink and you would have missed it. An obvious embarrassment to the network that regularly shows long interviews with people who have been affected by Israeli air strikes. If you think there’s no moral difference between the cold blooded murder of people and a tragic mistake in an attack on the military base of an enemy then you’re the one who’s morally blinkered.

It was a terrible, desperately sad tragedy however the bombing of the school was accidental. The execution of Saleh was a deliberate, disgusting act of barbarity by an utterly despicable regime.

Anybody spare a tear or two for 35,000 children slaughtered in Gaza? Are they guilty for being Palestinian?

Apologists can call the Iranian elementary school a mistake, but Gaza has been callous indifference.

If anyone is keeping score at home, upwards of 30,000 slaughtered in Iran by the mullahs. 70,000 - the bad Hamas fighters slaughtered in Gaza. Three US citizens slaughtered by Trump's stormtroopers.

Those of you shedding crocodile tears for yet three more innocents slaughtered...none of you really give a sh!t, because none of you made a peep when 35,000 kids were slaughtered in Gaza.

Many countries have the death penalty for killing police officers. Not surprised.

RIP Saleh and his two comrades. He deserves as much respect as the schoolgirls.

Although numbers are not comparable, the US has the death penalty, too.

On 3/21/2026 at 6:48 AM, AustinRacing said:

Many countries have the death penalty for killing police officers. Not surprised.

The problem is: did they kill police officers?

Human rights advocates tell a completely different and deeply disturbing story. According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the confessions from Mohammadi and his peers were entirely coerced. The agency states that the young men were subjected to severe torture and were denied anything resembling a fair trial.

Outrage grows as Iran executes teenage Olympic hopeful

On 3/21/2026 at 7:03 AM, JimCM said:

On 3/21/2026 at 3:50 AM, Evil Penevil said:

He turned 19 only a week before his execution. RIP

Older than all the 150 or so schoolgirls killed by your country on orders of your 'other' country. But he gets a RIP because he was a wrestler 😠

So that’s your takeaway - to attack the USA?

Can you genuinely not see the grotesque injustice inflicted by this regime on its own people? Or are you so deeply conditioned - so reflexively anti-American, so obsessively anti-Trump - that any evidence of Iran’s brutality is instantly dismissed, sidestepped, or conveniently ignored while you pivot to deflection?

No one is disputing that the deaths of 150 schoolchildren is a tragedy of the highest order - horrific, indefensible, and a catastrophic failure. But do not delude yourself into false equivalence. A tragic mistake in the chaos of war is not the same as the cold, calculated execution of teenagers by a system designed to condemn them from the outset.

One is a failure. The other is barbarism by design - and it appears you support the latter.

On 3/20/2026 at 10:54 PM, JimCM said:

Can't remember you saying RIP to the 165 civilians, mostly schoolgirls a couple of weeks ago when your country dropped a big bomb on an Iranian school.

Morally blinkered.

You are a truly terrible person.

On 3/21/2026 at 2:47 AM, Wingate said:

Anybody spare a tear or two for 35,000 children slaughtered in Gaza? Are they guilty for being Palestinian?

Nope.

1 hour ago, Effective altruism said:

On 3/21/2026 at 9:47 AM, Wingate said:

Anybody spare a tear or two for 35,000 children slaughtered in Gaza? Are they guilty for being Palestinian?

Nope.

Some people insist on reducing this into a crude binary - “good vs evil”, “good vs bad” - as if reality were that simple.

When grief is expressed for the murder of three innocent youths in Iran at the hands of a barbaric regime, they immediately pivot. Out comes the whataboutery - Gaza, thousands of dead children, other atrocities - as though invoking larger numbers somehow cancels out, balances, or dilutes the horrors in question.

It doesn’t. It never has.

Stacking tragic horrors against one another is not moral reasoning, it’s deflection.

It’s an attempt to avoid confronting a specific wrong by drowning it in a sea of other wrongs.

Are some people so blinded by prejudice that they’ve lost the basic human capacity to recognise suffering wherever it occurs? Acknowledging one atrocity does not diminish another.

And yet, the thinking on display here is so distorted it borders on willing blindness... Someone mentions three youths murdered by a fundamentalist, theocratic, authoritarian and barbaric regime, and the response isn’t outrage, empathy, or even reflection - it’s an immediate pivot..... “Yeah, but what about the kids in Gaza?”

9 hours ago, bannork said:

The problem is: did they kill police officers?

Human rights advocates tell a completely different and deeply disturbing story. According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the confessions from Mohammadi and his peers were entirely coerced. The agency states that the young men were subjected to severe torture and were denied anything resembling a fair trial.

Outrage grows as Iran executes teenage Olympic hopeful

They have released names of people killed in the riots.

The US executes three people over protests, including a married mother of three.