Family of executed protester says he was tortured into false confession
Jul 20, 2026, 21:50 GMT+1
Farnoosh Faraji
Mohammad Amini Dehaghan was executed two weeks before his 38th birthday.
The family of 37-year-old executed protester Mohammad Amini Dehaghani has told Iran International that he was tortured into making a false confession, denied effective legal representation and deprived of the chance to appeal his death sentence.
Amini, a father of two, was detained during nationwide protests in January 2026.
His relatives and other sources who spoke to Iran International could not be named for fear of retribution by Iranian authorities.
Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency announced on July 15 thatAmini had been executed after being convicted of moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” and corruption on Earth over allegationsthat he set fire to the governor’s office and damaged public property in Dehaghan county, Isfahan province.
His family said authorities had earlier accused him of involvement in a separate arson attack on a Bank Mellat branch in Dehaghan.
They rejected the allegation, saying he was at home when the fire occurred and played no role in it.
Amini, who was from Dehaghan, was the father of 13-year-old Raha and one-year-old Mahva. His relatives described him as quiet and someone who kept out of trouble, adding that his wife and two daughters were the focus of his life.
He was executed two weeks before his 38th birthday.
Arrested after IRGC summons, denied legal representation
Amini received a telephone call on the evening of January 19 asking him to report to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to provide an explanation, his relatives said.
“We have a video of you,” officers told him, sources told Iran International.
Amini was arrested after reporting to the IRGC and never returned home.
His family hired a private lawyer, but the lawyer was not allowed to meet Amini or given full access to the case file, his relatives said.
After the death sentence was issued, the family’s lawyer said he had appealed. But when relatives contacted the Supreme Court, they found that no appeal had been registered, the family said.
When the lawyer sought an explanation, the Dehaghan prosecutor told him: “There was no need for you to be informed about this.”
The family said it believed judicial authorities deliberately concealed the death sentence to deprive them of the opportunity to appeal or pursue other legal avenues.
Tortured into false confession
Amini was severely beaten during interrogations and tortured with an electric stun device to force him to make a false confession incriminating himself, his relatives said.
The family also said that he was given insufficient food and held in unhygienic and poor prison conditions.
During the first weeks of his detention, Amini was in poor physical and psychological condition and struggled to understand what was happening around him, his relatives said.
Several days before his execution, he was transferred to solitary confinement.
‘Tell everyone I am innocent’
During their final prison visit, his relatives said they saw him in a critical condition.
He was unable to walk, and officers had to hold him under his arms to bring him into the visiting room. His body was trembling, and he appeared to have almost no strength left.
“Tell everyone I am innocent,” Amini told his family during the visit.
After the execution, Iranian authorities refused to allow his body to be buried in his hometown of Dehaghan, his family said.
He was instead buried under government supervision at Isfahan’s Behesht-e Rezvan cemetery, with only a small number of close relatives permitted to attend the funeral.
Amini remained hopeful until the final days of his life that he would be released, sources told Iran International.
He had received a certificate recognizing his good conduct and called his wife from prison every day.
Amini asked her to record videos of their younger daughter, Mahva, so that after his release he could watch the moments of her childhood that he had missed.
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202607209451