Iranian authorities executed Mehdi Khanaki on Wednesday, a man arrested during the anti-government protests that swept the country in late December and early January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported. He was convicted of “operational acts in favour of the Zionist regime and America” and of manufacturing and possessing weapons and explosives, and was sentenced to death under a law that intensifies penalties for espionage and cooperation with Israel and hostile states.

According to Mizan and Iranian state media, Khanaki was detained on 10 February in Karaj, west of Tehran, after intelligence agents reported he was a member of an “anti-revolutionary terrorist group”. A search of his home, the reports said, uncovered five handguns, 90 rounds of ammunition, 11 homemade grenades, 30 improvised explosive tubes, remote detonators and bomb-making materials. The judiciary said Khanaki confessed to joining a group in 2023, learning to make explosives online from a contact named “Houman”, and receiving funds via cryptocurrency. Forensic tests, it added, showed that the seized weapons had been fired during the “riots” of Dey. The Revolutionary Court in Karaj tried him on charges that included acting operationally for Israel, the US and hostile groups; his lawyer was present, state media said. The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, and his assets were confiscated.

Iranian opposition media and international human rights organisations have challenged the official account. London-based Iran International and the Persian service of Voice of America described Khanaki as a protester from the “Dey uprising” and noted that the judiciary did not disclose the exact date of execution or the group he allegedly belonged to. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have long documented what they say is a pattern of forced confessions, torture, denial of access to independent legal counsel and unfair trials in cases linked to protests. The campaign “Tuesdays No to Execution” warned that the Islamic Republic seeks to delegitimise popular dissent by attributing it to foreign actors. Iran International, citing its editorial board, said more than 36,500 people were killed in the “targeted suppression of the national revolution” ordered by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iranian authorities, by contrast, have acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths and blame the violence on “terrorist acts” orchestrated by the United States and Israel.

The execution is the latest in a surge of death sentences handed down to participants in the winter protests, which began over economic grievances before turning into a broad challenge to the political establishment. The judiciary has said that identifying and punishing the “main agents” of what it calls the “American-Zionist coup” of Dey is a priority, following directives from Khamenei and the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. Earlier this month, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, expressed alarm that Iranians were again “caught between foreign attacks and the repression of the Islamic Republic”. Human rights organisations have urged the international community to press Tehran to halt executions and uphold fair trial standards. Further death sentences against protesters, including two men convicted in Shiraz for aiding wounded demonstrators, have been reported, and rights monitors expect more executions to follow.