Secret Execution of 19-Year-Old Arvin Kheirkhahan, Arrested During the January 2026 Protests

Breathing in Confinement, Saturday, 1 August 2026: The death sentence of Arvin Kheirkhahan, a 19-year-old arrested during the nationwide protests in January, has been carried out in Shahroud Prison.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Arvin Kheirkhahan, who had been arrested during the popular protests in Shahroud, was secretly executed at dawn on Saturday, 1 August, without prior notification to his family.

According to published reports, following his arrest, Branch One of the Shahroud Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on the charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh). After he appealed the ruling, the sentence was upheld in full by both the appellate court and the Supreme Court.

However, no detailed information has been made available regarding the circumstances and timing of his arrest, the specific acts forming the basis of the moharebeh charge, the course of the interrogations, the extent of his access to a lawyer of his own choosing, or the evidence relied upon by the court in issuing the death sentence. These serious uncertainties, combined with the lack of transparency surrounding the judicial proceedings, make it impossible to independently assess whether the standards of a fair trial were respected.

It has also been reported that, at the time of publication, judicial and prison authorities had not yet returned the body of the executed prisoner to his family. They were reportedly instructed to collect his body at dawn on Sunday. According to these instructions, the burial ceremony must take place at 5:00 a.m. under strict security measures.

As of the time of publication, the execution of this young protester had not been officially announced by Iran’s state media or by institutions affiliated with the judiciary.