Iran executes two men over deaths of four police in Isfahan protests

Iran has carried out the death sentences of two men convicted over the deaths of four police officers in Isfahan, a city in the centre of the country, during January's protests, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. The Times of Israel, citing Fars, named the men as Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi and said their death sentences related to their alleged involvement in the deaths of security personnel on January 8, 2026.

Fars said the sentences had been upheld by Iran's Supreme Court before they were carried out. The Israeli broadcaster N12, through its foreign desk, also relayed the Fars report, describing the two as men who were alleged to have killed police officers during the demonstrations in Iran in January 2026.

Where the information comes from

Both Israeli outlets that reported the executions attributed them to Fars. Neither cited an independent source, a statement from Iran's judiciary, or comment from the families or lawyers of the two men. Fars is described in the reporting as a semi-official agency, meaning it operates inside Iran's state-aligned media environment rather than as an independent outlet. For readers outside the region, that matters: the account of what the men did, how they were tried and when the sentences were carried out is, for now, the account given by Iranian state-linked media.

The Times of Israel used the word "alleged" when describing the men's role in the killings, and N12 used similar hedged language in Hebrew, saying it was claimed that they had killed police officers. Neither outlet presented the convictions as independently established.

Isfahan and the January unrest

Isfahan is a major city in central Iran. According to the Fars account carried by The Times of Israel, four police officers were killed there on January 8, 2026, during the protests that swept the country that month. The reports do not describe the circumstances in which the officers died, how many people were arrested in connection with their deaths, or whether others face charges in the same case.

The scale of the wider crackdown remains contested. The Times of Israel noted that Iranian authorities are thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of demonstrators over the course of the unrest, adding that some reports put the figure in the tens of thousands. No precise toll is given in either report, and the gap between those estimates reflects how difficult it has been to obtain verified figures from inside Iran.

The role of Iran's Supreme Court

In the cases reported here, the Supreme Court is the body that reviewed and confirmed the death sentences. Fars said both sentences were upheld at that level, which in the Iranian system is the step that precedes the carrying out of a capital sentence. The reports do not say when the original verdicts were handed down, which lower court tried the men, or how long the appeal took.

The wider picture on the same day

The executions were reported alongside other Iran-related developments in The Times of Israel's live coverage the same morning. That coverage included a senior Iranian official saying an agreement between Tehran and Washington had not yet been reached, and a US official saying a strike on Qeshm was aimed at Iranians who had been firing anti-aircraft missiles at American assets. The reports do not link those developments to the executions, and this article draws no connection between them.

Why it matters to readers abroad

Executions tied to protest-related cases have drawn attention well beyond Iran, because they are one of the few visible outcomes of a crackdown that is otherwise hard to document. For an international audience, the case of Maleki and Ebrahimi is a reminder that the legal consequences of the January unrest are still unfolding, and that most of what is known about those consequences reaches the outside world through Iranian official or semi-official channels.

What the reports do not say

Neither report gives the date or place of the executions, the method used, or any detail of the evidence presented at trial. There is no reported response from the men's families, their lawyers or human rights organisations, and no independent confirmation of the Fars account. The reports also do not say whether other people convicted in connection with the Isfahan killings are awaiting execution.