Iran has ordered the execution of a rising wrestler linked to the anti-government protests in January.
On 20 March 2026, Iran executed three men accused of killing a police officer during the anti-government protests in January, according to state media reports. This marked the first hanging related to those demonstrations.
The three executed were Mehdi Ghasemi, Saeed Davoodi, and Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestler, who were hanged in a city south of Tehran after being convicted of waging war against God under Iran's Sharia law.
The human rights organization Iran Human Rights stated that all three were sentenced to death following unfair trials based on confessions extracted under torture. The U.S. government had previously condemned Iran's actions.
The protests erupted in Iran in late December over rising living costs, expanding into nationwide anti-government demonstrations that peaked on 8–9 January. The unrest spread to 180 cities across all 31 provinces of the country.