Hengaw documented two simultaneous executions at Gorgan prison on 13 May 2026, the first time the city appeared in the wartime execution register. It was part of a coordinated five-prison cluster that day.Source: Hengaw

How many executions took place in Gorgan on 13 May 2026?

Two prisoners were executed simultaneously at Gorgan prison on 13 May 2026, according to Hengaw documentation.Source: Hengaw

Background

Gorgan entered the wartime execution record for the first time on 13 May 2026, when Hengaw documented two simultaneous executions at Gorgan prison, part of a five-city cluster also hitting Birjand, Tabriz, and Kerman the same day. The double execution, and the city's first appearance in The Register, were flagged by Hengaw as a significant geographic expansion.

Gorgan is the capital of Golestan province in north-eastern Iran, on the foothills of the Alborz mountains near the Caspian Sea coast. Population is approximately 350,000. It is a historically Turkmen-influenced city and the commercial centre for the fertile Golestan plain.

The extension of the multi-prison execution cluster to Gorgan, a city not previously in Hengaw's wartime records, signals either a widening of the execution programme or improved documentation reach. Human rights monitors note the simultaneous two-execution occurrence at a single previously unrecorded prison as particularly unusual.

How the World Sees Them

Iran (official)

No official confirmation of the Gorgan executions. Iranian authorities have not addressed Hengaw's documentation.

Human rights monitors

Hengaw flagged Gorgan's first appearance in the wartime register as significant; two simultaneous executions at an unrecorded prison suggests programme expansion.

International community

The geographic spread to Gorgan adds to calls for international investigation into the scale of Iran's wartime executions.