Iran Executes 19-Year-Old Convicted of Arson at Military Facility During January Protests

Iranian authorities hanged 19-year-old Mohammad Amin Biglari on or before April 5, the news site of the Iranian judiciary reported that day. Biglari had disappeared in early January during anti-government protests in Iran. His father searched morgues in Tehran for one month afterward, according to a relative of Biglari who spoke to NBC News.

A lawyer from the revolutionary court later contacted the family and said Biglari had been arrested. He was held at Ghezel Hesar prison, approximately 30 miles west of Tehran. Biglari’s father was not allowed to visit him there.

While in prison, Biglari was permitted only one-minute phone calls with his father. On the fourth call, the teenager told his father while sobbing that he had received a death sentence. Biglari worked at a hair salon and the internet department of a chain store and had been taking music classes while saving to buy a computer.

Biglari was arrested in early January while walking home from work in an area where protests were taking place and a building had been set on fire. Members of the Basij paramilitary force pushed Biglari and others into their base and confronted them. The Mizan news site accused him of breaking into a military facility and setting the building on fire.

Biglari’s lawyer, Hassan Aghakhani, told the Emtedad news site in February that he was not allowed to review the case or present a defense. After the execution, Iranian authorities refused to give Biglari’s body back to the family or tell them where he may be buried. Iran Human Rights reported Biglari’s death in early April.

Since mid-March, at least 28 people have been executed in Iran. Of those executed since mid-March, 13 were arrested in connection with the January protests, according to Iran Human Rights. NBC News reported that the Iranian regime has intensified its crackdown on those seen as the enemy within while battling external enemies Israel and the United States.

U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the United Nations said. The United Nations issued a report two weeks ago documenting arrests, forced disappearances, torture, and cruel treatment of detainees in Iran.

N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in the report. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, age 54, was held in a prison in Zanjan, northwest Iran, on national security charges.

Narges Mohammadi had a heart attack in prison in late March. She has now been transferred to a hospital in Tehran for treatment, her lawyer Mostafa Nili posted on X on Sunday. The properties of 40 people identified as “traitors to the country and those who have taken action against the security and stability of the country” were confiscated, according to a report published last week by the Mizan news site.

A handful of people were killed on the first day of the war for celebrating the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in public, according to Raha Bahreini of Amnesty International. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed along with other top officials on Feb. 28 in the initial salvo of the war.

There have not been any significant protests since the war started.