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Three men are seen in court on Thursday, March 20, in this screengrab taken from video released by Iranian state media. – WANA via Reuters<\/p>\n
When a 19-year-old wrestler and two other men were hanged<\/a> in the holy city of Qom on Thursday, Iran\u2019s theocratic regime was sending a message to both dissenters inside the country and opponents abroad, analysts say.<\/p>\n The three men, who were all linked to January\u2019s nationwide anti-regime protests, were executed with the approval of Iran\u2019s Supreme Court and \u201cin the presence of a group of people,\u201d said the judiciary-affiliated news agency Mizan.<\/p>\n Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, described the trials as a sham involving forced confessions and fast-tracked proceedings. Amnesty, in a statement on Friday, accused Iranian authorities of carrying out \u201carbitrary executions\u201d to intimidate the public \u201camong an already traumatized population, under bombardment from Israel and the US.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the war, US President Donald Trump had warned Iran against executing protesters, later saying he had received assurances that Tehran had no plans to do so<\/a>. Thursday\u2019s hangings are thought to be the first carried out in relation to the protests.<\/p>\n The three men \u2014 whom Mizan identified as Mehdi Qasemi, Saleh Mohammadi and Saeed Davoudi \u2014 were convicted for their role in the killing of two law enforcement officers at a police station. According to Mizan, they used swords, knives and machetes in separate assaults on the two officers.<\/p>\n The United States has previously said it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by reports about Mohammadi\u2019s conviction, describing him as a wrestling champion. In a post on X in January, the US called on Tehran \u201cto halt the execution of Saleh Mohammadi and all individuals who have been sentenced to death for seeking to attain their fundamental rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Deterrence at home, defiance abroad<\/p>\n The timing of the executions, in the midst of the US-Israeli war with Iran, was itself a signal, Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran program senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC, told CNN on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cEven amid an ongoing war, the regime\u2019s prioritizing of limited government time, attention and resources for executing political prisoners and protesters tells you all you need to know,\u201d he said, adding that Tehran is \u201cequally at war with its own people.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States and Israel are into the third week of their war, launched with the stated goals of destroying Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and missile capabilities<\/p>\n Taleblu said the hangings appeared designed to project continuity at home while the country is under attack. \u201cThere is yet another Khamenei at the helm and the regime is trying to signal that nothing has changed in the home front,\u201d he said, referring to Mojtaba Khamenei,<\/a> the second son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who held the position for nearly four decades until his death in US-Israeli air strikes.<\/a><\/p>\n Equally, the executions were intended to suppress potential dissent. \u201cMake no mistake, these executions aim to instil fear and terror into the hearts of protesting and dissenting Iranians,\u201d Taleblu said.<\/p>\n People gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on January 9. – MAHSA\/Middle East Images\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The anti-government protests that erupted across Iran in early January were fueled by economic turmoil, a collapsing currency and broader anger at clerical rule and were described as the most significant in decades. Thousands of people were killed in the bloody crackdown that followed.<\/p>\n The hangings were also a sign of Tehran acting in defiance of Washington, Taleblu said. \u201cTehran transgressed Trump\u2019s redline of protester executions overtly in a bid of defiance against a West it is at war with,\u201d he said, adding that Iran is also trying to signal it remains \u201cimpervious to pressure, be it foreign or domestic.\u201d<\/p>\n It was not just those associated with the protests facing execution this week. On Wednesday, Mizan announced the execution of Kourosh Keyvani, a dual Iranian-Swedish national whom it described as \u201ca spy for the Israeli regime\u201d accused of providing images and information about sensitive locations in Iran to Mossad officers.<\/p>\n CNN has reached out to the Israeli government for comment on this claim.<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Wednesday that a Swedish citizen had been executed in Iran earlier that day, calling the death penalty \u201cinhuman, cruel and irreversible.\u201d She said Sweden had repeatedly raised the case with Iranian representatives since the citizen\u2019s arrest in June 2025, urging that the person be granted a fair hearing and not sentenced to death.<\/p>\n A deterrent message aimed at US and Israel<\/p>\n Mehrdad Farahmand, a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, said the timing and nature of the executions were closely linked to wartime messaging from Washington and Israel that has explicitly encouraged Iranians to \u201crise up\u201d against the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n Since the war began, there have been state media reports of strikes on Iranian police bases and headquarters associated with other military units such as the Basij, the paramilitary force that was used to suppress the demonstrations<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n Farahmand said the hangings are also intended to counter a growing perception \u2014 inside Iran and among opponents abroad \u2014 that sustained attacks on the police and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could eventually fracture the state\u2019s coercive power.<\/p>\n \u201cThe regime, by executing these three individuals, wants to demonstrate that it still maintains full control over the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Iranian authorities \u2014 who have long accused the United States and Israel of fueling unrest inside the country \u2014 said the three men were convicted of moharebeh, often translated as \u201cenmity against God,\u201d a charge tied to alleged acts of violence during the protests. Tehran\u2019s calculus may have shifted because earlier US warnings about executions have lost deterrent value, according to Farahmand.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that the United States has already attacked, the regime no longer has any reason to hesitate in carrying out death sentences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cd0417d8b205b95f48623c640ea37369.jpeg\"\/)
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