Iran’s judiciary executed Mehdi Khaneki on Wednesday, the official Mizan news agency reported, making him the latest protester put to death for his role in the nationwide anti-government demonstrations that erupted in January. The 26-year-old was arrested in Karaj on 10 February and convicted by a Revolutionary Court of “operational actions” benefiting Israel, the United States and hostile groups, as well as manufacturing and stockpiling weapons. According to the judiciary, a search of his home yielded five handguns, 90 rounds of ammunition, 11 homemade grenades, explosive devices and precursor chemicals. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out after what state media described as a legal process that included a defence lawyer.

Viewed from Tehran, the execution forms part of a determined effort to punish those it holds responsible for what the authorities call a “US-Zionist coup” during the Dey month protests. The judiciary’s narrative, echoed by Hamshahri and Khabar Online, casts Khaneki as an active member of a “terrorist grouplet” who received cryptocurrency payments, was trained online by a handler named “Hooman,” and used the seized firearms during the unrest. State outlets published images of the alleged bomb-making workshop and detailed his purported confessions, which they said were corroborated by forensic ballistic tests. The official account insists the trial met legal standards and that the death penalty was applied under a law that intensifies punishment for espionage and collaboration with Israel and hostile states.

Opposition groups and international human rights monitors present a sharply different picture. The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), said Khaneki was a PMOI member subjected to months of physical and psychological torture and that his confession was extracted under duress. The Campaign for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Iran, a UK-based NGO, warned that dozens of other PMOI affiliates and January protesters remain on death row, with at least 26 facing imminent execution in Isfahan’s Dastgerd prison alone. Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, have repeatedly documented a pattern of forced confessions, denial of access to independent counsel, and trials that fall short of fair-trial guarantees in such cases.

The execution is the latest in a surge of capital punishment since the outbreak of hostilities between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition in late February. Rights groups say over 50 political prisoners have been hanged since the war began, many in secret, while families are pressured to remain silent. The crackdown has triggered hunger strikes in Ghezel Hesar and Dastgerd prisons, where inmates sewed their lips shut and chanted “no to executions.” Western officials have seized on the issue: US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, condemned the killing of protesters and threatened to destroy a bridge or power plant in Iran for any attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The UN’s Sato earlier expressed alarm that ordinary Iranians were again trapped between external military strikes and domestic repression.

The dossier remains highly active. Iranian media indicate that the judiciary, acting on directives from the late Supreme Leader and the head of the judiciary, continues to prioritise the identification and punishment of those involved in the January unrest. With over 70 death sentences already handed down to protesters in Dastgerd prison alone, and fresh verdicts reported daily, further executions are expected. International pressure is likely to intensify, but Tehran has shown no sign of relenting, framing the punishments as a sovereign response to foreign-backed sedition.