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Russia-Ukraine War 2026
23JUL

Reza Soleimani executed at Qom Central

3 min read
20:33UTC

Hengaw documented the execution of Reza Soleimani at Qom Central Prison on Friday 15 May and an unnamed prisoner at Karaj Central Prison the same day, extending the multi-day judicial cluster that began on 11 May.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Hengaw documented two more 15 May executions at Qom Central and Karaj Central, extending the multi-day cluster.

Hengaw, the Norway-based Kurdish human rights organisation, reported that Reza Soleimani was executed at Qom Central Prison on Friday 15 May and an unnamed prisoner was executed at Karaj Central Prison on the same day 1. Karaj Central is the facility where aerospace researcher Erfan Shakourzadeh was secretly executed on 11 May .

The Friday killings extend the cluster Hengaw documented across 12-13 May: seven executions in a single day on 13 May , and the Shahbakhsh and Afrashteh secret executions on 12-13 May . The five-prison footprint now spans Qezel Hesar Karaj, Mashhad, Karaj Central, Qom Central, and Gorgan, mapping onto provinces with the largest Kurdish, Baluch, and protest-era detainee populations.

Counter-perspective: Iran's judiciary maintains that executions follow standard criminal procedure under Islamic Penal Code articles unrelated to the wartime emergency, and IRNA has not characterised the Hengaw figures as accurate or inaccurate. The judiciary's position is that wartime conditions do not alter due process; Hengaw's documentation is that the tempo and geographic spread have accelerated since the outbreak of conflict on 28 February.

Iran's state figure of 3,468 wartime deaths does not break out judicial executions from kinetic casualties, leaving Hengaw as the only granular source for the war-era judicial pattern. The international monitoring window narrows as Iran's nationwide internet blackout passes the 2,000-hour mark next week ; once that threshold is crossed, source networks inside Iran shift onto degraded sneakernet and intermittent satellite uplinks.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group based in Norway, reported that two prisoners were executed at separate Iranian prisons on Friday 15 May: Reza Soleimani at Qom Central Prison and an unnamed person at Karaj Central Prison. Karaj Central is the same prison where an aerospace researcher named Erfan Shakourzadeh was secretly executed four days earlier. Iran's government does not publicly confirm these executions, and Hengaw is often the only source documenting them. The executions are part of a cluster spanning five prisons across Iran in a single week. Human rights groups say Iran has been accelerating executions of political detainees and minorities during the conflict, though the state frames the cases as ordinary criminal proceedings.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    The five-prison execution cluster, spanning Qezel Hesar Karaj, Mashhad, Karaj Central, Qom Central, and Gorgan, suggests a coordinated judicial acceleration that may intensify as the internet blackout approaches 2,000 hours and international monitoring capacity contracts.

  • Consequence

    With Karaj Central featuring in both the Shakourzadeh execution on 11 May and the 15 May unnamed prisoner execution, the facility is now running as a wartime high-security processing site that Hengaw cannot directly access for identification.

First Reported In

Update #99 · Two Hormuz papers; Washington on neither

Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights· 16 May 2026
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