When a 19-year-old wrestler and two other men were hanged in the holy city of Qom on Thursday, analysts say Iran’s theocratic regime was sending a message to its opponents both at home and abroad.
All three were involved in nationwide anti-regime protests in January, and were executed “in the presence of some people” with the approval of Iran’s Supreme Court, according to Mizan, a judicial news agency.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, said the trial was a sham that involved forced confessions and expedited proceedings. In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International accused Iranian authorities of carrying out “arbitrary executions” to intimidate the population “among a population already traumatized by shelling from Israel and the United States.”
Before the war, US President Donald Trump had warned Iran not to execute protesters, but later said he had received assurances from Iran that it had no such plans. Thursday’s hanging is believed to be the first carried out in connection with protests.
Three people, identified by Mizan as Mehdi Qassemi, Saleh Mohammadi and Saeed Davdi, were found guilty of taking part in the killing of two police officers at a police station. Mizan said they attacked two policemen separately using swords, knives and machetes.
The United States previously described Mohammadi as a wrestling champion and said it was “deeply concerned” by reports of his conviction. In a January post on X, the US called on Tehran to “stop executing Saleh Mohammadi and all individuals sentenced to death for seeking fundamental rights.”
Behnam Ben Taleburu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C., told CNN on Friday that the timing of the executions in the midst of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran was itself a signal.
“That the regime is prioritizing limited government time, attention and resources to execute political prisoners and protesters, even in the midst of an ongoing war, tells us everything we need to know,” he said, adding that Tehran is “equally at war with its own people.”
The United States and Israel are in their third week of war, which began with the stated goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear ambitions and missile capabilities.
Taleburu said the hangings appeared to be designed to demonstrate domestic continuity while the country was under attack. “Another new Ayatollah Khamenei is at the helm, and the regime is trying to show that nothing has changed on the domestic front,” he said, referring to Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who held the position for almost 40 years until he was killed in a US and Israeli airstrike.
Similarly, executions were aimed at suppressing potential dissent. “Make no mistake: these executions are aimed at instilling terror and fear in the hearts of protesting Iranians,” Taleblu said.
The anti-government protests that erupted across Iran in early January are said to be the most serious in decades, fueled by economic turmoil, a collapsing currency and widespread anger over clerical rule. Thousands died in the bloody crackdown that followed.
The hangings are also a sign that the Iranian government is acting in defiance of Washington, Tabul said. “Iran has blatantly violated President Trump’s red line for the execution of protesters in defiance of the West at war,” he said, adding that Iran was also trying to signal that it remained “unable to bow to pressure, whether foreign or domestic.”
Those connected to the protests were not the only ones facing execution this week. On Wednesday, Mizan announced the execution of Kourosh Khibani, a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen who he described as a “spy for the Israeli regime” for providing images and information about sensitive locations in Iran to Mossad agents.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli government for comment on this claim.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmar Schnaggart said on Wednesday that a Swede had been executed in Iran earlier in the day, calling the death penalty “inhuman, cruel and irreversible.” He said Sweden had repeatedly raised the case with Iranian representatives since the Iranian national was arrested in June 2025, asking that the person be given a fair hearing and not be sentenced to death.
Message of deterrence to the US and Israel
Middle East commentator Mehrdad Farahmand said the timing and nature of the executions were closely related to wartime messages from the United States and Israel that explicitly encouraged Iranians to “uprising” against the Islamic Republic.
Since the war began, state media has reported attacks on Iranian police bases and headquarters associated with other military units, including the Basij militia used to suppress protests in January.
Farahmand said the hangings were also aimed at countering growing awareness among Iran’s domestic and international opponents that continued attacks on police and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) could eventually collapse the state’s coercive power.
“The regime wants to prove that it is still in full control of the situation by executing these three people,” he said.
Iranian authorities, which have long accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest in the country, announced that the three men had been found guilty of mohalebeh (often translated as “enmity against God”) in connection with alleged acts of violence during the protests. Faramand said Tehran’s calculations may have changed because previous warnings about executions by the U.S. have lost their deterrent effect.
“Now that the United States has already attacked, the administration no longer has any reason to hesitate in carrying out the death penalty,” he said.
