Execution of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi; Broadcast of Their Forced Confessions Concurrently with Threats by the Judiciary and Security Agencies to Continue Executions
Today, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, the death sentences of two more protesters from the December 2025/January 2026 protests, named Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, were carried out at an undisclosed location in Semnan Province. Simultaneously, following the execution of the sentences, state media released short videos of their forced confessions, and subsequently, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired a more comprehensive report of these confessions. To date, 20 protesters from the 2025/2026 protests have been executed in a span of less than five months.
According to a report by Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the Judiciary, Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi were hanged in the early morning of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Semnan Province. These two men had been arrested in connection with the protests on January 8, 2026, in the city of Shahroud, but the exact date of their arrest has not been announced. The report also made no mention of the precise location where the execution of the two prisoners took place.
Prior to this, no reports regarding the arrest of these two individuals or the judicial proceedings of their case had been published. However, Mizan News Agency, quoting Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, the Chief Justice of Semnan Province, wrote that these two protesters "had engaged in breaking equipment and the doors of several bank branches, instigating chaos and rioting in front of the governorate, overturning a police vehicle and participating in setting it on fire, attacking residential homes, destroying vehicles, and committing other criminal acts effective in disrupting public order and the security of society."
The First Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Shahroud sentenced Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi to the death penalty and the confiscation of all movable and immovable properties and assets on charges of "destroying and setting fire to public and private properties and locations, assembly and collusion against internal and external national security, disrupting public order and security, creating fear and horror in society, carrying and using firearms and cold weapons, Moharebeh (enmity against God) through drawing weapons, Efsad-fil-Arz (corruption on Earth), inciting and encouraging individuals to participate in riots, and organized actions against the security of the country."
According to the Chief Justice of Semnan Province, the appeals and petitions for supreme review filed by the convicts were rejected, and the death sentences of these two protesters were upheld by the Supreme Court.
A video of the forced confessions of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi was broadcasted concurrently with the news of their execution. In this video, while their faces are blurred and their voices are altered, they describe how they joined the protests on January 8, 2026, and helped break the windows of a bank.
Subsequently, on the evening of June 16, 2026, a comprehensive report of the video of their forced confessions, showing their faces, was broadcasted on the IRIB news. At the end of this forced confession video, the reporter, quoting the Judiciary and security agencies, threatens that; "The Judiciary and security agencies have declared that the confrontation with these operational elements of the enemy will continue without leniency until the full rights of the Iranian people are realized, down to their very last individual."
Counting the execution of these two prisoners, 20 protesters have been executed in connection with the nationwide December 2025/January 2026 protests since March 18, 2026, until now.
