Iran Executes Detainees, Warns of 'Infiltrators'
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Iran's judiciary executed Mehdi Khanaki on Wednesday after a "revolutionary court" in Karaj convicted him for alleged ties to "the Zionist regime" and hostile groups, with state television showing security forces seizing handguns, ammunition, and explosives at his home.
- Two more men were executed Sunday in a 16-defendant case arising from deadly protests in Isfahan on January 8, where authorities say the defendants killed police officers; foreign-based activists countered that the trials lacked due process and involved torture.
- The January protests began December 28 in central Tehran over economic grievances and morphed into nationwide anti-establishment demonstrations, with thousands killed mostly on the nights of January 8 and 9 — events authorities now describe as a US-Israeli-orchestrated "coup."
- Security-related prosecutions now operate under a law passed after the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, designed to punish espionage and actions perceived as cooperating with "enemies" — and tens of thousands have been arrested in the aftermath of the protests and the US-Israeli war that began February 28.
- New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was selected in March after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war's opening salvo, this week called for "sacred unity," a message echoed by Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who warned of "infiltrators" disguised as insiders seeking to "create division and schism."
- Iran's Ministry of Intelligence on July 13 released a "hostile media" list naming 61 "human-media" figures and 310 accounts, warning that sharing information with them can trigger prison sentences and permanent exclusion from public employment; state TV also aired a blurred-face "confession" from a young man who posted anti-regime Instagram stories.
Why it matters: Iran is projecting wartime unity through executions and "infiltrator" rhetoric precisely as the US publicly identifies alleged rifts among Iranian authorities — a framing Tehran rejects. The crackdown runs on a post-June-2025 security law, with new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei now aligning the judiciary behind his call for "sacred unity."
