5APR

Iran Executes Two More Protesters Under Bombardment

2 min read

12:52UTC

Three executions in 48 hours while the country is under aerial attack. At least 11 more men face imminent death.

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ConflictAssessed

Key takeaway

Iran is accelerating protest executions while the world watches the air war.

Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast were executed on 5 April for attempting to storm a military facility during the January 2026 protests. Two others from the same group of four defendants also face capital punishment. Amnesty International documented torture in detention, forced confessions, and trials it called grossly unfair. ¹

This was the third execution in 48 hours. Amirhossein Hatami, 18 years old, was killed by the state two days earlier . At least 11 men face imminent execution for protest participation. The government found the institutional will and bureaucratic capacity for this while its cities are under bombardment, while its president warns of economic collapse, and while its parliament legislates nuclear defiance. External pressure that might generate internal dissent is managed by eliminating the dissenters.

No Western government has conditioned military coordination with the US on Iran's domestic human rights record during this conflict. The executions proceed in a space where international attention is consumed entirely by the air campaign and the Hormuz blockade.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Iran is killing people who protested against the government in January 2026, while the country is simultaneously under aerial bombardment. Three people have been executed in 48 hours. One was 18 years old. Human rights groups say the trials used forced confessions and were grossly unfair. At least 11 more men face the same fate. This is happening with very little international attention, because the world is focused on the air strikes and the blocked shipping lane.

What could happen next?

Risk
The wartime execution of political prisoners during a satellite blackout and casualty monitor silence creates near-total opacity for the evidentiary record, making post-conflict accountability structurally harder.

Source Landscape

This story draws on centre-leaning sources from Israel

Israel

LeftRight

Primary parallel: Iran's 1988 political prisoner massacres during the Iran-Iraq war — an estimated 3,000 to 30,000 prisoners executed over several months while the country was under international focus on the ceasefire negotiations. The killings were largely undocumented until decades later and have never been prosecuted. The current execution acceleration, occurring while satellite imagery is blacked out and casualty monitoring is silent, follows the same opacity structure.

Counter-parallel: Iraq's execution of political prisoners during the 2003-2008 conflict period — prosecuted post-conflict through the Iraqi High Tribunal, though incompletely. Iran's judicial architecture, which gives the Supreme Leader final authority over execution confirmation, makes equivalent post-conflict prosecution structurally more difficult.

Consensus view: Amnesty International and Iran Human Rights (Oslo) both document that wartime executions of political prisoners in Iran follow a historical pattern: the Islamic Republic executed thousands of political prisoners in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war's final phase, using wartime conditions as political cover for eliminating domestic opposition.

Counter-view: Iranian legal scholar Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Laureate, in exile) argues the executions are not merely opportunistic but structural: the IRGC's wartime consolidation of judicial oversight means military commanders, not civilian judges, are effectively authorising executions.

Key tension: Whether the international community's preoccupation with the air campaign creates durable impunity for wartime political executions, making them impossible to prosecute post-conflict.

Sources:Jerusalem Post

Mentions:Mohammadamin Biglari →Shahin Vahedparast →Amnesty International →Iraq →Amirhossein Hatami →Iran →Iran Human Rights →negotiations →Prima →

First Reported In

Update #59 · Day 37: A Ground War Inside Iran That Nobody Will Name

Jerusalem Post· 5 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Iran Executes 18-Year-Old Protester Under Bombardment

Hatami's execution on 3 April was the second in two days; Biglari and Vahedparast executed on 5 April constitute the third, making three executions in 48 hours with 11 further men at imminent risk.

Occurred 3 Apr 2026

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This Event

Iran Executes Two More Protesters Under Bombardment

The accelerating execution rate demonstrates that external military pressure has not deterred internal repression but has provided cover for it.

Different Perspectives

South Korean financial markets

South Korea, which imports virtually all its crude oil, is absorbing the war's economic transmission most acutely among non-belligerents. The second KOSPI circuit breaker in four sessions — with Samsung down over 10% and SK Hynix down 12.3% — reflects an industrial economy unable to reprice energy costs that have risen 72% in ten days. The market response indicates Korean industry cannot sustain oil above $100 per barrel without margin compression across manufacturing, semiconductors, and shipping.

Migrant worker communities in the Gulf

The first confirmed civilian deaths in Saudi Arabia — one Indian and one Bangladeshi killed, twelve Bangladeshis wounded — fell on communities with no voice in the military decisions that placed them in harm's way. Migrant workers live near military installations because that housing is affordable, not by choice. Bangladesh and India face the dilemma of needing to protect nationals who cannot easily leave a war zone while depending on Gulf remittances that fund a substantial share of their domestic economies.

Azerbaijan — President Ilham Aliyev

Aliyev treats the Nakhchivan strikes as a direct act of war against Azerbaijani sovereignty, placing armed forces on full combat readiness and demanding an Iranian explanation. The response is calibrated to maximise international sympathy while stopping short of military retaliation — Baku cannot fight Iran alone and needs either Turkish or NATO backing to credibly deter further strikes.

Oil-importing nations (Japan, South Korea, India)

The Hormuz closure is an existential threat. Japan, South Korea, and India receive the majority of their crude through the strait — they will bear the heaviest economic cost of a war they had no part in.

Global South governments (Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa)

Neutrality was possible when the targets were military. 148 dead schoolgirls made it impossible — no government can explain that away to its own citizens.

Turkey

Has absorbed three Iranian ballistic missile interceptions since 4 March without invoking NATO Article 5 consultation. Each incident narrows Ankara's political room to continue absorbing without Alliance-level response.