Iran has executed two men convicted of waging war against God and spreading corruption on earth for their roles in the nationwide protests that convulsed the country in January, marking the first hangings of demonstrators since Tehran and Washington announced a ceasefire ending a 40-day military confrontation. The judiciary’s news agency, Mizan, confirmed that Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi were put to death at dawn on Tuesday in the city of Shahrud, where they were accused of leading an armed attempt to overthrow the Islamic Republic. The timing is freighted with significance: the executions signal that the regime’s machinery of internal repression is accelerating even as it steps back from open hostilities with the United States.

Viewed from Tehran, the hangings serve a dual purpose. The head of the judiciary in Semnan province described the two men as armed coup leaders who exploited legitimate economic grievances to destroy public and private property, attack banks, overturn a police vehicle, and set it alight. By framing the protesters as foot soldiers of a foreign enemy, the state seeks to delegitimise dissent and project an image of unyielding resolve. Yet human rights monitors paint a starkly different picture. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation has documented 746 executions across Iran since the start of 2026, 45 of them political prisoners, and notes that many death sentences rest on confessions extracted under physical and psychological duress. The “No Execution Tuesdays” campaign, in its 125th week of protest, called the spike in hangings a desperate attempt to contain a public fury stoked by oppression and spiralling living costs.

Western capitals and international watchdogs are watching with alarm. Amnesty International issued an urgent warning on the same day, revealing that two other protesters, Ali Fattah and Mohammad Naqizadeh, had been transferred to Ghezel Hesar prison near Karaj after their death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court — a move that historically precedes execution. The Kurdish rights group Hengaw separately raised the risk of an imminent hanging for Alireza Peyghambar. Analysts in London note that the resort to mass executions, particularly of political detainees, is a familiar pattern for a system under acute strain, but the scale documented in the first half of 2026 — more than 170 prisoners hanged since the Iranian new year alone — suggests an intensification that goes beyond routine judicial violence.

The executions also complicate the diplomatic landscape. The ceasefire agreement between Iran and the United States had raised tentative hopes of a broader de-escalation, yet the hangings of Zamani and Saedi, and the threat to Fattah and Naqizadeh, underscore that the Islamic Republic is unwilling to trade domestic control for external relief. Viewed from Washington, the message is unambiguous: the regime will continue to crush internal opposition regardless of its strategic bargains. For a global readership, the episode lays bare the enduring tension between geopolitical pragmatism and the human rights commitments that Western powers profess, a tension that is likely to sharpen as further executions loom.