Iran executed a political prisoner in the southeastern city of Kerman on Wednesday, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported, on charges of carrying out armed attacks during what Tehran described as joint American-Israeli military operations on Iranian soil.
Ali-Sina Mostafavi, 38, a tar player and mountaineer from the city of Bam, was identified by Mizan as one of "the armed agents of the American-Zionist enemy." The agency accused him of opening fire on civilians in Kerman's Azadi Square on 24 March, wounding one person and a young girl, and of firing on conscript soldiers and passing vehicles on 21 April, injuring further civilians.
The judiciary also linked Mostafavi to the protests that swept Iran in December 2025 and January 2026 — which the authorities call the "Dey protests" and describe as a coup attempt — and to sending footage to Persian-language media outlets based abroad, which Tehran brands as hostile.
According to Mizan, security forces seized from Mostafavi a Brno rifle with telescopic sight, a shotgun, a second unlicensed shotgun, 246 rounds for the Brno, and 30 Molotov cocktails.
Mostafavi, who had made a solo ascent of Island Peak in the Himalayas and attempted Ama Dablam, reaching 6,600 metres, was held in Shahab prison in Kerman. In his final days, he was moved to solitary confinement and his family were summoned for a last visit.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah, described Mostafavi on X as "a patriotic young man" condemned after forced confessions extracted under torture in what he called show trials, and urged others to speak out for political prisoners facing execution.
The charge Mostafavi faced, moharebeh, or "enmity against God," in Iranian law represents taking up arms against people's lives, property or honour in a way that creates insecurity. Tehran has deployed the charge for decades to suppress opponents, critics and protesters.
Second execution this week
Two days earlier, Mizan confirmed the execution of Omar Dorastaran, 25, identified by the judiciary as a member of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl. He was accused of helping group members enter Iran, arranging accommodation and transport, and providing support for attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Sistan and Baluchistan province, including the attack on the Paroud base and March 2024 assaults on military installations in Chabahar.
The 2024 attack on the Rask police post was among the deadliest carried out by armed groups in south-eastern Iran, killing eleven security forces members. Dorastaran, single and from the village of Cheraghan in Rask county, was studying at a religious school in the city of Pishin at the time of his arrest, according to human rights organisations.
Halvash, a local media outlet in Sistan and Baluchestan, reported that he was arrested without a warrant and held for an extended period without access to visits or phone calls, and that security agents sought to extract forced confessions through torture. The province, one of Iran's poorest, has long been the scene of armed clashes between security forces and Sunni militant and Baloch armed organisations, and fighting has intensified in recent weeks.
Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned the execution of five men within a single week in Iran in cases linked to the January protests, and called for coordinated international pressure on Tehran to halt further executions.
The executions come amid heightened regional tensions, with oil prices climbing after reported attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and NATO warning about hybrid attacks across Europe, though the Iranian cases are separate from those developments. European governments, which have repeatedly condemned Iran's use of the death penalty, are likely to face renewed pressure to respond to the accelerating execution rate.
