25APR

Iran executes Shirzadi Fakhr at dawn

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20:34UTC

Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr was executed on Thursday 23 April on moharebeh and Israel-collaboration charges, Hengaw documented, separate from the protest-era detainee cohort.

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Key takeaway

A new wartime charge category, Israel collaboration, runs alongside the protest-era executions Hengaw tracks separately.

Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr was executed at dawn on Thursday 23 April on moharebeh and "collaboration with Israel" charges, according to Hengaw ¹. The Hengaw note records the case as separate from the protest-era detainee cohort the organisation has tracked since the war began. Hengaw is the Norway-based Iranian human rights documentation organisation; moharebeh is the Persian Sharia-law charge of "enmity against God", historically applied to political and security offences and carrying the death penalty under Iran's penal code.

The distinction matters for the wartime judicial record. Iran's domestic security apparatus is now running two parallel execution tracks: the protest-era moharebeh sentences Hengaw has been tabulating, and a separate Israel-collaboration cohort opened by the war. Three Ali Fahim co-defendants (Shahab Zahdi, Abolfazl Salehi Siavoshani and Yaser Rajaeifar) remain in solitary confinement at Ghezel Hesar prison facing imminent execution per Hengaw, after Iran executed Erfan Kiani on Saturday 25 April as the eighth wartime political prisoner .

The MEK (Mojahedin-e Khalq) listing on Shirzadi Fakhr's charge sheet is the legal mechanism Iran uses to fold political opposition into security prosecution; the Israeli-collaboration framing is the wartime layer added on top. Together they describe an executive judicial process that requires no public trial and exposes families to courier-only notification of sentence dates.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Moharebeh is an Islamic legal concept meaning 'enmity against God', used in Iranian law to charge people with crimes against the state or Islam. Iran's judiciary uses it as a capital charge for a broad range of offences, from armed insurgency to protest activity. The additional 'collaboration with Israel' charge in Shirzadi Fakhr's case is new in wartime Iran: it reflects the government's effort to frame wartime dissent as active support for the military enemy, carrying a harder legal basis for the death penalty. **Hengaw**, the Norway-based Kurdish human rights organisation monitoring these cases, keeps a running count because Iranian state media rarely reports individual executions unless they serve a deterrence function.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The 'Israel-collaboration' charge category raises the offence from a domestic-law matter to a wartime treason equivalent, which is harder for international human rights organisations to contest under Iranian law. A moharebeh conviction alone can be appealed on procedural grounds; a wartime collaboration charge activates emergency-jurisdiction courts with faster timelines.

The charge also signals to Iran's internal surveillance network that the threshold for capital charges has expanded beyond protest activity to include any contact with Israeli or Israeli-proximate entities. In practice, that covers a wide range of Iranian diaspora and commercial relationships, giving the **IRGC** and judiciary a broadened pool of potential targets.

What could happen next?

Meaning
The creation of a 'wartime Israel-collaboration' capital charge category is likely to accelerate the pace of executions against Iranians with any documented contact with Israeli entities, including dual nationals and academics.
Short term · Assessed
Meaning
Three Ali Fahim co-defendants in solitary at Ghezel Hesar face the same moharebeh framework; the Shirzadi Fakhr execution, documented separately by Hengaw, suggests the judiciary is processing the two cohorts in parallel rather than in sequence.
Short term · Assessed
Meaning
International human rights bodies including Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran now face a dual-track execution programme: protest-era sentences and a new wartime collaboration category, complicating the legal arguments for any moratorium.
Short term · Assessed

Sources:NPR·Times of Israel·US Department of the Treasury

Mentions:Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr →Hengaw →MEK →Israel →Shahab Zahdi →Yaser Rajaeifar →Abolfazl Salehi Siavoshani →Erfan Kiani →moharebeh →Ali Fahim →Iran →Norway →Qezel Hesar Prison →

First Reported In

Update #80 · Three carriers, zero instruments

NPR· 26 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Iran executes Erfan Kiani, eighth wartime hanging

The execution of Shirzadi Fakhr on 23 April follows the execution of Erfan Kiani on moharebeh charges on 25 April (ID:2781), extending Iran's wartime execution record with a new Israel-collaboration charge category.

Occurred 25 Apr 2026

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This Event

Iran executes Shirzadi Fakhr at dawn

A new wartime charge category appears alongside the protest-era moharebeh sentences: collaboration with foreign enemies, separately tracked.

Different Perspectives

Israel

Israeli strikes on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon continued through the weekend, maintaining the secondary front. The IDF has publicly named Mojtaba Khamenei as an assassination target; his courier-governance mode complicates targeting but does not remove him from the order.

Russia

Putin told a Moscow press conference that Washington, not Tehran or Moscow, killed the Russia-custody uranium arrangement by demanding US-territory-only storage. Neither Tehran nor Washington has corroborated the account, which appeared in second-tier outlets only, consistent with a trial balloon rather than a formal position.

United Kingdom

HMS Dragon was redeployed from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East on 9 May, the first physical European platform commitment to the Gulf. The Ministry of Defence called it "prudent planning" while publishing no rules of engagement, no tasking order, and no vessel name, committing a named asset to a conflict zone before the political instrument authorising it exists.

United Arab Emirates

UAE air defences intercepted two Iranian drones over its territory on 10 May, a kinetic escalation six days after the Fujairah oil terminal strike that drew no formal protest. The three-state simultaneous operation, not the severity of individual strikes, appears to have crossed the threshold at which the GCC states collectively began responding.

Saudi Arabia

Riyadh issued the first formal Gulf-state protest of the conflict on 10 May, demanding an "immediate halt to blatant attacks on territories and territorial waters of Gulf states", ending 10 weeks of channelling displeasure through OPEC+ quota discussions. The protest forecloses Saudi Arabia's preferred quiet-channel role and reduces the functioning back-channel architecture to Pakistan alone.

Qatar

Doha is simultaneously a strike target, the site of the Safesea Neha attack 23 nautical miles offshore, and an active MOU mediator: Qatar's prime minister met Rubio and Vance in Washington the same weekend. Whether Qatar issues its own formal protest or maintains its dual role is the critical escalation indicator for the week of 11 May.