Skip to content
Briefings are running a touch slower this week while we rebuild the foundations.See roadmap
Iran Conflict 2026
26APR

Three Ali Fahim co-defendants face execution

2 min read
13:59UTC

Hengaw reports three co-defendants in the Ali Fahim case remain in solitary confinement at Ghezel Hesar prison facing imminent execution. Seventeen political prisoners have been killed since the war began.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Seventeen political prisoners executed since the war began; three co-defendants stand next in line.

The Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights reported on 24 April that three defendants in the Ali Fahim case, Shahab Zahdi, Abolfazl Salehi Siavoshani and Yaser Rajaeifar, remain in solitary confinement at Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj facing imminent execution 1. Hengaw is the Kurdish rights monitor that documents executions and political detentions across Iran. No new executions were confirmed on Friday itself.

Hengaw counts 17 political prisoners executed since 28 February, the date of the first US strikes, and a Q1 2026 total exceeding 160 executions across all categories. The Ali Fahim case has been the principal marker: Fahim was executed earlier in the war , and Amirali Mirjafari followed on Day 53 . The three remaining co-defendants in the same case now sit at the same pre-execution stage of the judicial sequence.

The post-28 February pace runs at roughly one political prisoner every three days, against a Q1 2026 non-political baseline that already made Iran the second-highest executioner in the world. Wartime pace sits inside that baseline rather than above it, which indicates the state is using existing administrative capacity to clear dissent cases under war cover rather than authorising a new volume of executions. The Ghezel Hesar clustering matters because solitary confinement at that specific facility has been the procedural precursor to execution for the Fahim-case defendants already killed.

The international visibility hinge is whether European capitals meeting at Cyprus on Friday raise the Hengaw tally in the summit conclusions. Hengaw's numbers are the single consistent measure that does not depend on Iranian state cooperation, and the 17-count since 28 February is the cleanest data point any European government can cite without contesting Tehran's internal judicial claims.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

A Norway-based human rights group called Hengaw tracks political prisoners in Iran. On 24 April, it reported that three men in the Ali Fahim protest-era case, Shahab Zahdi, Abolfazl Salehi Siavoshani and Yaser Rajaeifar, remain in solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison and face imminent execution. Ali Fahim himself was executed on 20 April. Since the start of the war on 28 February, Hengaw counts at least 17 political prisoners executed in Iran. Iran's total executions in the first quarter of 2026 exceed 160, including criminal cases. These are people who were arrested for participating in protests, often tried in proceedings that human rights groups say lasted less than a month.

First Reported In

Update #78 · Allies flagged, adversaries listed, nothing signed

Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights· 24 Apr 2026
Read original
Different Perspectives
Israel
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
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
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
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
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
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.