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Iran Conflict 2026
19APR

Hengaw: two more executions, Yavari tortured

3 min read
11:05UTC

Hengaw documented two further custodial executions at Ghezel Hesar during the ceasefire window, with 31-year-old Abbas Yavari confirmed tortured to death at a Shiraz detention centre; Iranian authorities called it suicide.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Hengaw's execution and torture documentation has continued through the ceasefire window rather than paused inside it.

Hengaw, the Norway-based Kurdish human rights organisation that monitors custodial executions and custodial deaths inside Iran, documented two further executions at Ghezel Hesar prison during the ceasefire window, and confirmed the death of Abbas Yavari, aged 31, under torture at a detention centre in Shiraz 1. Iranian authorities declared Yavari's death a suicide.

Ghezel Hesar is a high-security prison in Karaj where Hengaw has previously documented multiple political executions during the 2026 conflict. Two further executions there (Biglari and Kalour) were recorded on 14 April . The 18 April additions extend Hengaw's running toll during the ceasefire window rather than before or after it. Executions during an active pause in hostilities are data points the Iranian government had hoped to obscure under the blackout; Hengaw's documentation chain has continued to produce names.

Yavari's case is separately notable because it places a named, aged individual at a specific detention centre in Shiraz and contests the Iranian government's suicide ruling with an independent assessment of torture. Custodial deaths ruled suicide by the state are the category in which Iranian rights monitors most frequently identify extra-judicial killings; Hengaw's willingness to name one at 31, and to tie it to a location, gives international observers a documentary anchor.

Behind these cases, Hengaw's wider wartime count sharpens the frame. Hengaw had already documented 125,630 damaged structures and 960 people rescued from rubble by 13 April . The Ghezel Hesar and Shiraz reports add named custodial victims to a toll that has so far been measured mainly in building counts.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

While negotiations about a ceasefire extension were underway on 18 April, two Iranian men were executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison near Karaj ; and a 31-year-old named Abbas Yavari died in a detention centre in Shiraz. Iran's government said Yavari took his own life; Hengaw, a human rights organisation based in Norway that monitors Iran's Kurdish region and prison system, confirmed he was tortured to death. Ghezel Hesar is one of Iran's largest high-security prisons. Hengaw and other groups have documented a pattern of executions there that are carried out under drug trafficking charges ; a mechanism that allows Iran to execute political prisoners without publicly acknowledging their political activities. The ceasefire announced in early April applies to the external military conflict. Iran's government has not indicated it applies to its domestic prison system.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj has been documented by Hengaw since 2020 as a primary facility for political executions carried out under narcotics convictions ; a legal mechanism Iran uses to produce death sentences that do not require public acknowledgment of the victim's political activities.

Abbas Yavari's case follows the same pattern: a detention centre death attributed to suicide by Iranian authorities, documented as torture by an independent human rights monitor. The 31-year-old's age and the Shiraz detention location suggest he was part of a protest-related arrest cohort ; Iran arrested several thousand people in Shiraz during the early weeks of the war.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    The Ghezel Hesar executions during the ceasefire window give European human rights advocates within the 51-nation coalition a documented basis to press for human rights conditionality on Hormuz mission participation.

  • Risk

    Continued custodial executions during ceasefire diplomacy create evidentiary records that could support future ICC referral proceedings ; but Iran is not an ICC member state and the practical enforcement consequence is limited.

First Reported In

Update #73 · Russia yes, Iran no: Treasury signs only one waiver

Asriran citing Reuters and Tasnim News Agency· 19 Apr 2026
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Causes and effects
This Event
Hengaw: two more executions, Yavari tortured
The rights toll at Ghezel Hesar has continued through an active ceasefire window, and the Shiraz custodial death gives observers a named individual in the growing list of extra-judicial killings during a period the Iranian government has described as a pause.
Different Perspectives
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Migrant worker communities in the Gulf
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Azerbaijan — President Ilham Aliyev
Azerbaijan — President Ilham Aliyev
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Oil-importing nations (Japan, South Korea, India)
Oil-importing nations (Japan, South Korea, India)
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Global South governments (Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa)
Global South governments (Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa)
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Turkey
Turkey
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