27 May 2026 :
May 24, 2026 - IRAN. Mojtaba Kian Hanged on May 24
Less than 50 Days After Arrest
First Execution From 40-Day War
State media reported that Mojtaba Kian was executed less than fifty days after his arrest for allegedly sending “the coordinates of a defence industry facility to a satellite channel which was subsequently destroyed in an attack.”
Kian is the first person arrested during the 40-day war to have been executed. He was sentenced to death on charges of “intelligence activities for the Zionist regime and the United States” according to Article 1 of the new “Law on Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and Interests.” The bill significantly broadened the scope and application of the death penalty, effectively lowering the threshold for executions by codifying it for a broader range of vaguely defined offences under the guise of combating cooperation with hostile states.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, a man named Mojtaba Kian was hanged at an unspecified location in Alborz province on 24 May 2026. He was arrested less than fifty days ago, per the official report.
He was accused of sending information to a satellite network “containing location details of a company linked to the defence industry” which led to “the targeted location being attacked by the enemy and completely destroyed.” He was tried in Alborz province.
“The court sentenced Mojtaba Kian to death and ordered the confiscation of all his property on charges of intelligence activities for the Zionist regime and the United States. This verdict relied on Article 1 of the Law on Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and Interests. The ruling was supported by extensive evidence, including the defendant's explicit confessions during both the preliminary inquiry and the trial, the seizure of a mobile phone and number used to send eight messages containing defence industry details to the hostile network, and clear proof of his deliberate awareness of his actions and the hostile nature of the network he was contacting.”
No independent information is available about his case.
Mojtaba Kian is the first person arrested during the 40-day war to have been executed. His hasty execution was carried out in accordance with a directive issued on 29 March by Iran's Head of the Judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, who ordered the immediate trial and fast-tracking of all cases involving alleged collaboration with the United States and Israel under wartime conditions. Ejei explicitly stated that maximum statutory penalties, including execution and the complete confiscation of assets, would be applied “without leniency to dismantle foreign espionage chains.” This mandate triggered a broader judicial crackdown targeting individuals accused of sharing information, photographs or footage of “sensitive sites” with foreign media networks, providing the exact legal framework for the expedited 50-day process that led to Mojtaba's hanging.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/8765/
