Mojtaba Dehbandi and Kianush Hamzezadeh-Kazerouni Sentenced to Death for Helping Injured Protesters

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 20 July 2026: Mojtaba Dehbandi and Kianush Hamzezadeh-Kazerouni have been sentenced to death by the Shiraz Revolutionary Court for providing medical help to injured protesters during the January nationwide protests.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Mojtaba Dehbandi, 23, and Kianush Hamzezadeh-Kazerouni (photo), 27, were sentenced to death by Branch One of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) through the arson of public buildings and burning a Quran, and action against national security by harbouring protesters. Their preliminary sentence was issued over two months ago. Both men are Shiraz natives and detained in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mojtaba worked as a curtain seller alongside his brother, while Kianoush was a grocer. The two men had brought several injured protesters into a shop to provide them with medical treatment. They were identified via surveillance cameras inside the premises, and eight days later, they were arrested at their homes while the four injured protesters who were still inside the shop were also arrested.”

No information is available about the fate of the four injured protesters.

IHRNGO has documented systemic violations of due process and fair trial rights in death penalty cases. On 16 May, the organisation warned that the Islamic Republic's judiciary is actively weaponising state-approved lawyers to facilitate and expedite the execution of arrested protesters. Families of death row prisoners are also routinely silenced through threats and coercion to prevent them from speaking out about their loved ones’ cases. Consequently, no independent information is available on many of these cases.

At least 23 protesters have been executed in relation to the January 2026 protests since 19 March, listed here in order of execution: Saleh Mohammadi, Saeed Davodi, Mehdi Ghasemi, Amirhossein Hatami, Mohammad Amin Biglari, Shahin Vahedparast Kolor, Ali Fahim, Amir Ali Mir Jafari, Erfan Kiani, Sasan Azadvar, Ebrahim Dolatabadnejad, Mehdi Rasouli, Mohammadreza Miri, Mohammad Abbasi, Abbas Akbari Feizabadi, Ashkan Maleki, Mehrdad Mohammadinia, Fathollah Avari, Javad Zamani, Abolfazl Saedi, Mohammad Amini Dehaghani, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi.