Iran Executes Three Men After Supreme Court Upholds Sentences

Iranian judicial authorities said Sunday they executed Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences for alleged actions during January’s antigovernment protests. The judiciary accused the men of carrying out operations on behalf of the United States and Israel, but the alleged foreign links and evidence behind the convictions have not been independently verified.

Authorities said the case involved armed attacks and damage to public facilities in Karaj, west of Tehran, including an electricity substation. The judiciary alleged that the men used firearms, grenades and Molotov cocktails and set public property on fire. Those allegations were presented as the basis for convictions; the men’s accounts of the proceedings were not included in the reports.

The judiciary said the three men’s property was ordered confiscated. Other defendants in the case received prison terms of five to 10 years. One report said Divband was arrested on January 11 and that 10 people were later detained over alleged participation in the unrest under his direction.

Hengaw, a human rights organization, reported that people close to Zanganeh disputed the...