Iranian authorities have executed two death row inmates convicted in connection with the death of a police officer during anti-government protests in early January of this year, AFP reported, citing Iranian media outlets.

Iran's judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency and semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that the two men, Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari, were hanged publicly in a square in the city of Malekshahr, Isfahan Province, on the morning of the 28th local time.

They were indicted and sentenced to death for participating in an incident during a protest at Alikani Square in the central city of Isfahan on January 8 of this year, where demonstrators attacked police officers with weapons, poured flammable substances on them, and set them on fire, causing their deaths.

According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), a human rights organization based in Norway, four security personnel, including police officers, were killed in the incident.

Initially, 62 people were arrested in connection with the case, and 16 of them were indicted.

All of them were young men ranging from their late teens to late twenties.

It is known that 12 defendants were sentenced to death.

Iranian authorities previously announced that two of them, who participated in the violence and recorded and transmitted videos, were hanged on the 19th.

AFP reported that 13 independent human rights experts, including UN special rapporteurs, issued a statement on the 27th urging the Iranian government to halt the executions of the young men sentenced to death in this case.

They emphasized that "sentencing 12 individuals to death after a single trial, held in a closed court, without clarity on each defendant's individual responsibility violates established fair trial standards."

They also pointed out procedural problems, noting that the death sentences relied heavily on televised confessions, and that there were reports of some defendants being subjected to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and ill-treatment.

In Iran, protests protesting rising prices and the burden of living costs began late last year and flared up into large-scale anti-government demonstrations early this year.

In particular, a large number of deaths and injuries occurred during the suppression of massive protests on January 8 and 9.

Overseas human rights organizations claimed that thousands of people were killed by the authorities' crackdown, while Iranian authorities claimed that the violent protests were "terrorist acts" backed by the United States and Israel.

Global human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have pointed out that Iran is the country that carries out the second-highest number of executions after China.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights and the French anti-death penalty organization ECPM estimated that at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran in 2025.