Hengaw, the Norway-based Kurdish human rights organisation that tracks judicial killings inside Iran, documented the secret execution of Erfan Shakourzadeh, a 29-year-old aerospace researcher, at Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on or around 11 May 2026 on espionage charges1. The execution followed reported torture. Family notification preceded any public state announcement; the documentation cycle is the same one Hengaw has used through the conflict to surface judicial killings the Iranian state has not acknowledged in writing.
The case profile mirrors the Najmeh Amini moharebeh-and-Israel charge that Hengaw documented in Mashhad on 9 May. Two defendants in roughly forty-eight hours, both charged on Israel-linked espionage grounds, both technically skilled, both processed outside any public courtroom record. Shakourzadeh's aerospace specialism is what makes his case operationally distinct from earlier humanitarian cases Hengaw has documented. The state's charging template appears to be selecting researchers and technicians whose work intersects with military-relevant capability, rather than dissidents or protest figures, which is a different population from the demographics Hengaw was tracking when it documented the 56-prison hunger strike on 5 May and the Bakrzadeh and Karimpour executions earlier that week.
Hengaw's documentation is the only source for the execution; Iranian state media have not confirmed and no foreign mission has had consular access. The Kurdish-language network behind the monitor has been the most reliable source on Iranian judicial killings through 2026. Qezel Hesar is the same prison where Hengaw has documented multiple secret executions during the present conflict, which is a procedural pattern, not a coincidence. For families of dual-national or expatriate-linked researchers inside Iran, the case is the second data point inside a fortnight that the charging-and-execution loop can run in days rather than months.
For governments preparing diplomatic representations on consular access, the espionage-charge template is the legal mechanism that closes the door. Espionage convictions in Iran's revolutionary courts carry the death sentence and run without public proceedings, which is the procedural feature that lets a 29-year-old aerospace researcher be hanged before the documentation reaches Geneva.
