ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iranian authorities on Saturday carried out the death sentence of a man arrested during the 2022 Zhina Amini protests over his alleged involvement in the killing of a security officer.

Mehran Bahramian, from central Iran’s Semirom, was executed by a court in Isfahan on Saturday morning, according to a statement from the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online, on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God).

The judiciary described Bahramian as a “level-one thug,” claiming that the suspect had confessed to involvement in an attack on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces in late 2022, during which one Basij member was killed, and several others were injured.

The Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization said that Bahramian’s execution comes despite the fact that he had been initially released on bail before being rearrested in late July after Iranian security forces raided his home.

The execution comes days before the country marks the third anniversary of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom) protest movement.

Zhina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, Sanandaj province, died under suspicious circumstances in a Tehran detention center after being arrested for wearing a lax hijab.

Her death sparked Iran’s largest protest movement in Iran in more than four decades. Iranian authorities heavily cracked down on the demonstrations with over 500 people killed and tens of thousands others arrested during the nationwide movement.

Iran has carried out the death penalty against dozens of Amini protesters since, and many others are at risk of execution.

At least 975 individuals were executed in Iran in 2024, marking the highest rate of executions in the country since 2015. That rate is set to be surpassed in 2025 with at least 841 people already executed from the start of the year until August 28, according to numbers from the United Nations.