ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Sunday executed a political prisoner accused of sending information related to the defense industry to the “enemy” during the war with the US and Israel, the judiciary said, as Tehran ramps up executions linked to national security. 

Mojtaba Kian was hanged after “sending information in wartime conditions about the location of a company related to the defense industry in messages to an enemy-affiliated network,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website reported.

The site was completely destroyed three days after Kian had sent the message, it added, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s name was also mentioned in his messages. 

Iran has a long history of broadcasting alleged confessions from detainees that are widely believed to be coerced, often obtained through threats, psychological pressure, and, in some cases, physical torture.

“After sending the message to the satellite network, they gave me a number to send the information, and I sent the information through that,” state media cited Kian as saying.

Iran has witnessed a record high rate of executions, following its war with the US and Israel and the nationwide protests in January.

Iranian authorities have delivered a heavy-handed response to the weeks-long nationwide protests by killing, injuring, and arresting tens of thousands of demonstrators, according to unconfirmed reports from human rights watchdogs.

According to Amnesty International’s 2025 annual report on the use of the death penalty worldwide, global executions have surged to their highest level in over four decades, driven largely by Iran.

The report said Iranian authorities carried out at least 2,159 executions, more than double the previous year and the highest figure recorded in the country in decades. Iran alone accounted for around 80 percent of all recorded executions worldwide.

On Thursday, Iran executed two Kurds charged with membership of “separatist terror groups,” with the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk saying that it “deplores” the killings.