12 prisoners executed in prisons across Iran amid ongoing wave of executions
Hengaw – Friday, June 19, 2026
At least 12 prisoners, including two Baloch prisoners, one Kurdish prisoner, one Arab prisoner and one Lor prisoner, have been executed in recent weeks in prisons across Iran. The prisoners, identified as Karim Karami, Zahir Shahouzehi, Hossein Brahoui, Rashid Arefi, Khalegh Shahriari, Mehdi Moradian, Sadegh Shiri, Keyvan Rashidian, Mohammadreza Malekzadeh, Mansour Bakhtiari, Abbasgholi Seifzadeh and Rahman Bikar, had been sentenced to death on charges including drug-related offenses, premeditated murder, rape and armed robbery.
According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, two Baloch prisoners, Zahir Shahouzehi (Gargij), 40, a father of three, and Hossein Brahoui, 24, both from Zahedan, were executed at dawn on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Zahedan Central Prison. Shahouzehi had been arrested three years earlier on drug-related charges, while Brahoui had been sentenced to death for premeditated murder following his arrest five years ago.
On the same day, Rashid Arefi, a 38-year-old Lor prisoner from Borujerd in Lorestan Province, and Khalegh Shahriari, a 51-year-old Arab man from Ahvaz who was living in Gorgan, were executed in Borujerd Central Prison and Gorgan Central Prison, respectively. Both men had previously been sentenced to death on murder charges.
Karim Karami, a Kurdish prisoner from Kermanshah (Kermashan), was executed on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Kermanshah Central Prison. He had been sentenced to death after being arrested five years earlier on charges of premeditated murder.
Mehdi Moradian, a prisoner from Tehran, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Saturday, June 13, 2026. He had also been sentenced to death for premeditated murder.
In addition, two young men from Shiraz, Sadegh Shiri, 24, and Keyvan Rashidian, 22, were secretly executed on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz without prior notice to their families. The two prisoners had been arrested 15 months earlier on charges of raping and murdering a woman and were subsequently sentenced to death.
Another prisoner, Mohammadreza Malekzadeh from Yazd, was executed at dawn on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Yazd Central Prison. He had previously been sentenced to death on drug-related charges and had been transferred from Ardakan Prison for the execution.
Three additional prisoners were executed on Friday, May 15, 2026, in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan. They were identified as Mansour Bakhtiari, 27, from Isfahan; Abbasgholi Seifzadeh, 53, from Kashan; and Rahman Bikar, 32, from Isfahan.
Bakhtiari had been sentenced to death two years earlier on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”) through armed robbery. Seifzadeh and Bikar had each been sentenced to death for premeditated murder following arrests three and five years earlier, respectively.
None of these 12 executions has been announced by Iranian state media or official judiciary-affiliated outlets.
