Erfan Shakourzadeh

Erfan Shakourzadeh was executed at Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on 11 May 2026, aged 29. He was an aerospace researcher who had been detained by Iranian security services on charges that human rights organisations characterised as politically motivated. His execution came during an acute phase of the Iran conflict, when Iranian authorities were simultaneously running parallel judicial proceedings against others on moharebeh charges with alleged Israel connections. Rights monitors noted the speed of his case through the court system and the absence of credible open-source evidence linking him to the charges brought.

Qezel Hesar is one of Iran's largest and most overcrowded prisons, located in the industrial suburb of Karaj west of Tehran. It holds a significant population of political and security detainees alongside criminal inmates. Iran has carried out a series of executions since the 2022 Mahsa Amini uprising of individuals convicted on security-related charges, a pattern human rights bodies including Amnesty International have documented as systematic. Shakourzadeh's status as an aerospace researcher made his case notable among international scientific and academic communities tracking Iran's treatment of technical professionals.

The timing of his execution, simultaneous with the Hormuz escalation and international diplomacy around the 14-point MOU, attracted particular scrutiny. Critics argued the execution was intended to signal domestic resolve at a moment when the Iranian government was under external pressure to negotiate. His case illustrates the intersection of Iran's internal judicial repression with its external conflict posture: high-profile executions of young technical professionals serve both domestic deterrence and international signalling functions.