Iran Secretly Executes Four Including Kurdish Political Activists Without Family Notification

Amnesty International and Euronews reported that Iran secretly executed four men — including two Kurdish political activists identified as Ramin Zale and Karim Maroufpour at Naqadeh Prison, and two Iraqi nationals convicted on espionage charges — without notifying their families in advance. The executions brought Iran's 2026 total to over 200 in fewer than five months, continuing at a rate Amnesty attributed in part to wartime political repression. Iran's record of 2,159 executions in 2025 — the highest since 1981 — had already drawn UN condemnation. Amnesty documented that the Kurdish activists were convicted under vague national security charges in trials that lacked basic due process guarantees, with convictions based partly on confessions obtained under duress.