Iran executes 18-year-old musician over protests in newest present of defiance amid warfare towards US and Israel
Iran has executed a teenage musician as it steps up the barbaric practice in a sickening show of defiance.
Amirhossein Hatami, 18, was hanged in the notorious Ghezel Hesar prison outside the capital on Wednesday, despite hopes he would be spared because of his age.
The talented guitarist was arrested on January 8 and accused of committing arson against the feared Basij paramilitary’s base in Tehran during anti-regime protests.
He was held in solitary confinement for weeks, his long, curly black hair was shaved off, and he was paraded on national television being brutally interrogated.
Amirhossein was convicted of ‘Moharebeh’, or ‘Enmity Against God’, on February 6, and on Wednesday the judiciary announced he had been ‘hanged at dawn’.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website said he acted ‘against national security’ on behalf of Israel and the United States by breaking into ‘a military centre and destroying it in order to seize the weapons stored there’ during the protests.
But Amnesty International said it was ‘outraged by the arbitrary execution of the teenage protester’, adding the trial was ‘grossly unfair’ and that he had been sentenced to death less than a month after his arrest.
Now fears are growing for dozens more on death row, with reports that four other men have been moved to pre-execution solitary confinement in the same prison as the teenager.
Amirhossein Hatami, 18, was hanged in the notorious Ghezel Hesar prison outside the capital on Wednesday, dashing hopes he would be spared because of his age
Families and residents gather at the Kahrizak Coroner’s Office, confronting rows of body bags as they search for relatives killed during the regime’s violent crackdown on protests in January
Iranian police special forces stand guard during a funeral procession for Alireza Tangsiri, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and others killed in Israeli strikes in late March, in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday
Mohammad Amin Biglari, 19, Ali Fahim, 23, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, 51, Shahin Vahedparast Kolor, 30, are understood to be at the ‘undisclosed location for execution’.
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi shared their pictures before news broke of Amirhossein’s killing and wrote: ‘The bloodthirsty regime in Iran is preparing to commit yet another unforgivable crime.’
He added: ‘These young men are condemned not for anything they did, but because of what they represent.
‘This regime’s sham courts do not seek justice; they seek to terrorize Iran into silence. They will fail.’
Amnesty International had warned they were among 11 men at imminent risk of execution who had been ‘subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention, before being convicted in grossly unfair trials that relied on forced confessions’.
It had been hoped that Amirhossein would be spared as the regime had previously said it would differentiate between what it chillingly described as ‘deceived youth’.
His killing follows the hanging of four political prisoners earlier this week, convicted on charges of rebellion for membership in the banned People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) after the supreme court upheld their sentences.
Meanwhile, Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, 19, was killed alongside Mehdi Ghasemi and Saeed Davvodi last week.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, Director of Iran Human Rights NGO, said: ‘Amirhossein Hatami was executed following a grossly unfair trial and on the basis of forced confessions.
‘The execution of three protesters and four political prisoners in just two weeks signals that the regime has intensified its war against the Iranian people.
‘As it struggles for survival, the authorities view the Iranian people, who are demanding fundamental change, as the primary threat to their existence.’
He added: ‘Hundreds more now face imminent executions in the coming days and weeks. We must not allow the ongoing war to overshadow the Islamic Republic’s atrocities against the Iranian people!’
At least four top anti-regime figures were brutally executed in Iran since Monday, while another 15 political prisoners have been sentenced to death in recent days, according to an opposition group.
During a briefing on Wednesday, the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mohammad Mohaddessin said: ‘These executions were not only the taking of four lives, but they were also a message from the regime.’
Mohaddessin warned that the killings of Pouya Ghobadi, Babak Alipour, Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, and Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar – all members of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran – were the product of the regime trying to ‘exert control.’
‘Why were they executed now? During a very hard external war? Because the regime leadership is extremely concerned about the domestic situation and the possibility of another uprising,’ he said.
The regime wants these executions to intimidate, to send a warning.’
Iran’s regime has launched a killing spree in an attempt to clamp down on political dissidents, with four men already executed this week. Babak Alipour (pictured) was killed on Tuesday
Mohaddessin added that scores of prisoners are still at risk of execution and said that a court in Iran has already confirmed the death sentences of 15 other members of the PMOI.
He also warned that the world was witnessing a ‘prelude to a massacre of political prisoners, similar to 1988, when the regime, facing the consequences of its defeat in war with Iraq, carried out mass executions in which 30,000 political prisoners were executed.’
Citing Iranian dissident politician Maryam Rajavi, he added that Tehran’s executions reflect the regime’s ‘fear and desperation’ in the face of an enraged population and growing support for the Resistance Units and the Liberation Army.
‘Carrying out such executions amid an external war is a clear admission that the regime’s principal enemy is the Iranian people and their Resistance.
‘Although the regime seeks to exploit external war to mask its deep and unresolved internal crises, it cannot escape its inevitable overthrow by the people and the Resistance,’ he added.
He also urged the international community to take effective measures to halt executions in Iran.
‘The UN, US, and all defenders of human rights must condemn the executions of PMOI members,’ Mohaddessin urged, saying that ‘the international community must uphold its obligation.’
The NCRI’s warnings come following the hangings of political prisoners Pouya Ghobadi and Babak Alipour on Tuesday.
Their deaths came a day after the deaths of Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi and Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar.
All four were political prisoners belonging to PMOI and had been sentenced to death over two years ago.
According to NGO Iran Human Rights, their executions were carried out in secret, without their families being notified in advance.
Alipour, a 34-year-old law graduate, was jailed in 2018 and 2021. He suffered from intestinal infection and prostate disease during his previous incarcerations, which were left untreated for a prolonged period.
He was arrested again on 27 December 2023 and transferred to the notorious Evin Prison, where he was under interrogation for four months.
Ghobadi, 32, was an electrical engineer whose five family members were jailed and executed in the 1980s. He was arrested in February 2018 and 2019.
In November 2019, he was jailed in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary. He received a ten-year sentence and was released in February 2022, before being detained again in February 2024.
Sangdehi, 60, was arrested in 2024 and was being held in the Evin prison.
The pair were killed by Iranian authorities on Monday
Daneshvarkar, also 60, was an engineer and had spent the last years of his life in Evin prison. He was prosecuted in a joint case alongside several other political prisoners on charges including membership in the PMOI, ‘assembly and collusion against national security,’ and ‘forming illegal groups.’
The executions came amid Iran’s war with Israel and the United States, which erupted on February 28 with strikes that killed the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
There has been a surge in executions during the war, as the Islamic Republic seeks to demonstrate its strength as the US mulls pulling out and leaving the regime in place.
At least 145 people are confirmed to have been killed in 2026 so far, with an additional 400-plus executions reported but not verified, according to Iran Human Rights.
