Hengaw, the Norway-based Kurdish human rights monitor that has become the principal independent casualty tracker for the 2026 Iran conflict, documented seven executions across five prisons on 13 May1. Five unnamed prisoners were executed simultaneously in prisons in Birjand (South Khorasan province), Tabriz, Kerman, and Gorgan (two in Gorgan); Mohammad Abbasi was executed in a separate action the same day. Ehsan Afrashteh's secret execution on espionage charges was confirmed as part of the cluster Hengaw first reported on 12-13 May.
Gorgan, capital of Golestan province in Iran's north-east, appeared in Hengaw's wartime execution register for the first time. Previous documentation by Hengaw had mapped a geographic concentration in the Tehran region, anchored by the Shakourzadeh execution at Qezel Hesar prison in Karaj and the earlier Karaj cluster. Gorgan's first appearance, 600 km north-east of Tehran, indicates the programme is broadening geographically rather than remaining concentrated by proximity to the capital's judicial infrastructure.
The coordination visible in the five-prison cluster is not a feature of Iran's peacetime judicial system. Simultaneous executions across prisons in four cities in a single day imply centrally issued standing orders rather than independent provincial court calendars, each operating on its own sentencing timeline. The IRGC's security apparatus has been using the war as judicial cover for a category of detainee held before the conflict began: the espionage charging pattern, "Israel-linked moharebeh" (enmity against God), has now appeared in cases from Mashhad to Karaj. The 13 May cluster adds Gorgan to that register.
The Shahbakhsh-Afrashteh cluster plus the five unnamed prisoners on 13 May add at least eight to Hengaw's wartime count across the 12-13 May window. The total wartime execution register has risen sharply since the Shakourzadeh documentation established the Tehran-area baseline.
