Iranian authorities executed 23-year-old Ali Fahim on Monday following his conviction in connection with January's nationwide anti-government protests. The state-run Mizan Online website identified Fahim as a participant in an attack on a Basij militia base in Tehran, stating his execution followed supreme court approval.
Fahim is the fourth person executed among seven men sentenced to death in February for the same incident. Rights groups report that two of those already executed were teenagers, and three others remain at imminent risk of the death penalty.
A surge in political executions
Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) reports that the government has accelerated capital punishment during the ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States. Following a brief pause in late February, authorities have executed 10 political prisoners in the last eight days alone.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated that these actions represent a survival strategy for the regime. "These executions are part of the Islamic republic's strategy of survival—waging war against its own people under the shadow of external conflict," Amiry-Moghaddam said.
Rights organizations, including IHR, allege that Fahim and his co-defendants suffered torture and were denied access to legal counsel. Their cases were processed through fast-track trials presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, a figure sanctioned by the United States in 2019 for his frequent use of the death penalty.
State media continues to frame the defendants as foreign agents. Mizan Online claimed Fahim worked on behalf of the "Zionist regime and the United States" to seize weapons from a military installation.
Recent days have seen a rapid succession of state-sanctioned killings. On Sunday, authorities hanged 19-year-old Mohammad-Amin Biglari and 30-year-old Shahin Vahedparast. Last Thursday, 18-year-old Amir Hossein Hatami was also executed. All three were convicted in cases linked to the same protest movement that has seen thousands of reported deaths during the government crackdown.
