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Iran Conflict 2026
1JUN

Iran hangs a 15th uprising protester

3 min read
08:32UTC

Abbas Akbari Feyzabadi was hanged in Isfahan on Monday for taking part in January's protests, the 15th execution tied to the uprising. His sentence was carried out before his family was told.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Iran's execution tempo over the January protests continues unbroken while its diplomats negotiate abroad.

Abbas Akbari Feyzabadi was executed on Monday 25 May in Isfahan province on a charge of moharebeh, enmity against God, for taking part in the January 2026 protests, according to i24 News and the Oslo-based monitor Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) 1. Iranian authorities accused Akbari Feyzabadi of opening fire on security forces and attacking government buildings, and carried out his Supreme Court-upheld sentence before notifying his family.

He was the 15th person put to death over the January uprising, the wave of protests that swept Iran early in the year and met a lethal state response. His case is distinct from that of Mojtaba Kian, executed a day earlier on espionage charges . The two hangings on consecutive days mark different tracks of the same crackdown: one framed as wartime espionage, the other as armed rebellion.

For the reader: moharebeh is a capital charge under Iranian law for waging war against the state, applied here to protest activity that the authorities say turned violent. The pre-notification execution, carrying out the sentence before telling the family, is a pattern rights monitors have documented repeatedly through the war.

The rights record runs in parallel to the diplomacy, not behind it. Amnesty International's 2026 execution register passed 200 earlier this month , and Akbari Feyzabadi's death adds to a count that has not slowed while negotiators talk. The table in Beijing and the gallows in Isfahan ran on the same Monday, and only one of them produced a document.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Iran executed Abbas Akbari Feyzabadi in Isfahan province on 25 May. He was the 15th person put to death for taking part in the January 2026 protests, which erupted after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that started the war. He was charged with 'enmity against God', a capital offence under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, based on accusations that he fired on security forces and attacked government buildings. Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) in Oslo documented the execution and confirmed the family received no prior notification. The executions for protest activity continue even as Iranian officials hold diplomatic talks aimed at ending the war, a pattern Iran has followed in previous conflicts and protest crackdowns.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    The 15-execution pace for January-uprising activity means European governments conditioning any Iran sanctions relief on human-rights improvements face a rising evidentiary record that makes conditionality politically harder to waive.

  • Risk

    If the pace of executions accelerates beyond 15 before any MOU is signed, parliamentary scrutiny in EU member states may add human-rights conditions to any sanctions-waiver instrument that requires European legal frameworks to implement.

First Reported In

Update #107 · Two markets, two prices on one Iran deal

i24 News· 25 May 2026
Read original
Different Perspectives
Human rights monitors (Hengaw, Amnesty International, Iran HRM)
Human rights monitors (Hengaw, Amnesty International, Iran HRM)
Monitors documented a second death sentence for Zahra Tabari, 68, reported cemetery record deletions at Behesht-e Zahra, and a poll showing 81.5% of medical residents want to emigrate, against a background of 200+ confirmed executions since February. Iran's security courts operate at uninterrupted wartime tempo regardless of the diplomatic track.
Pakistan (mediator)
Pakistan (mediator)
Islamabad carried Trump's revised MOU demanding HEU destruction to Iranian negotiators, formally inheriting the role of sole active mediator after Oman's forced withdrawal. Pakistan lacks Oman's banking infrastructure for frozen-asset routing and carries its own regional stakes, making it a less structurally neutral broker.
Kuwait
Kuwait
Kuwait intercepted Iranian missiles and drones for a second time in days on 1 June, with air-raid sirens sounding nationwide, after invoking Article 51 self-defence on 28 May following the Ali Al Salem ballistic-missile strike. The repeated interceptions test whether Kuwait's domestic politics can sustain hosting US forces as a de facto co-belligerent.
China (PRC)
China (PRC)
Beijing sent scholars to Shangri-La rather than its defence minister and addressed Taiwan without mentioning Iran, maintaining bilateral energy corridor protection with Tehran while refusing diplomatic exposure at multilateral forums. Trump barred China as an HEU custodian on 27 May, removing Beijing from the deal architecture while China continues supplying DPI hardware that caps Iran's internet.
Lloyd's of London / war-risk underwriters
Lloyd's of London / war-risk underwriters
Lloyd's held its Hormuz war-risk designation at $10-14 million per voyage while Brent recovered to $93.91, maintaining the structural divergence from futures pricing that has persisted since late May. Underwriters require a UN Security Council resolution or government certification letter, not diplomatic optimism.
Gulf Cooperation Council states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar)
Gulf Cooperation Council states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar)
Five Gulf states wrote to the IMO on 21 May rejecting Iran's PGSA transit authority over international waters; Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not confirmed participation in the European Hormuz mission. The GCC is navigating between US security guarantees and exposure to Iranian fire, with no Gulf state formally co-belligerent except Kuwait.