Rasht

Rasht is the capital of Gilan province on Iran's Caspian Sea coast, in the north of the country, and is the largest city on the Iranian Caspian littoral with a population of approximately 750,000. It is the cultural centre of the Gilak people, a distinct Iranian ethnic group with their own language and literary tradition, and is known historically for a politically active civic culture, including the 1920 Soviet-backed Gilan Republic. The city sits roughly 330 kilometres north of Tehran.

On 5 May 2026, a Gilak prisoner was executed in Rasht, adding the city to the briefing's growing map of wartime execution sites across Iran's provinces. Hengaw's documentation of 30 January-protest detainees sentenced to death, with 13 secretly executed as of 4 May, provides the numerical frame for individual cases like this one. The provincial spread of executions, from Mashhad in the northeast to Urmia in the northwest, Yazd in the south, and now Rasht on the Caspian coast, indicates a nationwide pattern rather than a single court system operating in a single location.

Chief Justice Mohseni Eje'i's acceleration orders for death sentences operate through the provincial court system, enabling courts in cities like Rasht to process capital cases without the normal appellate review timeline. Gilan province has a documented history of political activism, and wartime execution reports from Rasht fit within a broader pattern of authorities targeting politically active communities in non-Persian-majority provinces.