Iran hangs three more January protesters in Karaj, five executed in less than a week

Iran executed three men early Sunday who were arrested during January's anti-regime protests in Karaj, west of Tehran, after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences, the regime's judiciary said.

Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh were sentenced to death, and their assets were ordered confiscated, on charges of carrying out operations for Israel, the United States and "hostile groups." The judiciary accused them of attacking public and government buildings, damaging an electricity substation and setting public property on fire during the January 8–9 protests. It made no public evidence of the foreign-agent charges available.

According to the judiciary, Divband was arrested on January 11 on a tip from the Intelligence Ministry's Alborz office. Ten more people were arrested as alleged collaborators. The Karaj Revolutionary Court sentenced the three to death and eight others to five to 10 years in prison.

These hangings follow two more on Tuesday, Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, so five January protesters have been put to death in under a week. Iran International's own count found the regime executing nearly two people a week in political and security cases since January, with about 190 more facing death sentences. Human Rights Watch says many of these cases rely on rushed trials and torture-tainted confessions, and that in 16 of 29 protest-related executions it reviewed, no one was accused of killing anyone.