Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Jul 27
Iran Charges 16 With Capital Offenses Over IRGC Colonel's Death in Isfahan Protests
Updated
Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Jul 27
Iran Charges 16 With Capital Offenses Over IRGC Colonel's Death in Isfahan Protests
3 articles · Updated · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Jul 27
Summary
Sixteen defendants in Isfahan are awaiting verdicts on moharebeh charges that could bring death sentences over the January 8 killing of IRGC Colonel Abbas Kamrani during anti-government protests.
Prosecutors have not charged them with murder and, according to sources and rights groups, relied mainly on confessions allegedly extracted through beatings, electric shocks and rape threats rather than independent evidence.
The case is being heard in a revolutionary court inside prison facilities, where lawyers were denied access to case files; many defendants are under 23, including 20-year-old twins Taraneh and Romina Rahimi.
Judges Morteza Barati and Mohammad Reza Tavakoli have issued harsh protest-related sentences before, and Tavakoli recently condemned 12 men to death over the same night of unrest in Isfahan.
The trial comes amid a wider rise in executions since Iran's February 28 war with the United States and Israel, which activists say is meant to deter a repeat of the nationwide protests that shook the clerical establishment.
With verdicts looming for 16 Iranian protesters, will the lack of independent evidence expose the regime's reliance on torture-induced confessions?
Could the impending death sentences of young twins in a secretive prison court spark the very nationwide uprising Iran's government fears?
Is Iran using its 2026 wartime emergency as a convenient smokescreen to quietly execute domestic dissidents and silence legal defenders?
The 2026 Iranian Execution Wave: The Isfahan 16, Youth Crackdown, and the Regime’s War on Dissent
Overview
Following the nationwide protests in late 2025 and early 2026, Iranian authorities arrested 16 citizens in the Isfahan Shohada Square case, extracting confessions under torture and denying fair trials. As war broke out with the US and Israel in February 2026, officials escalated executions, especially targeting young protesters, and fast-tracked death sentences without appeals. The regime uses public hangings and secret burials to instill fear and prevent public mourning, while suppressing dissent and controlling information. Despite this, political prisoners have organized hunger strikes across dozens of prisons, and international groups are urgently appealing to halt the execution surge.