Iran hangs two men over January protests

Iran on Tuesday executed two men for their role in nationwide protests in January, state media reported, among a series of death sentences that rights groups say have been handed out since the start of the war with the United States.

Abolfazl Sepahi-Badjani and Amirhossein Safari-Hosseinabadi were accused of taking part in the killing of four security force members in Alikhani Square in Isfahan on January 8, the judiciary's news outlet Mizan said.

The nationwide anti-government protests were repressed in the biggest crackdown in the history of the Islamic Republic, during which security forces killed thousands of protesters.

Since then, more pressure has piled onto Iran over five months of war that the authorities in Tehran view as existential.

A panel of United Nations experts said in a press release on Monday, before Sepahi-Badjani and Safari-Hosseinabadi's executions were carried out, that at least 24 people had been executed for offences tied to the January protests.

Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Norway-based Iran Human Rights, said Sepahi-Badjani and Safari-Hosseinadabi were executed in public.

Mizan did not say where the executions took place. Iran's semi-official news agency Mehr said they were carried out in Alikhani Square "in the presence of a group of people". 

At least 12 of those convicted of involvement in the Alikhani Square case have been sentenced to death, the U.N. experts said. Two of them, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, were executed on July 19, Mizan said.

The U.N. experts said the 12 had been sentenced to death in a single hearing, in a closed courtroom and without clarity as to each defendant's individual responsibility, which the experts said violated standards for fair trials.

Human Rights Watch said this week that at least 50 people had been executed on what it called vague national security charges over the past four months.

Iran's permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Tehran has previously denied accusations of abuses against prisoners.

Iranian authorities have throughout the war warned against any resumption of anti-government unrest, while proclaiming that the nation is united behind the Islamic Republic. 

U.S. threats to attack Iran this year began on January 2 when President Donald Trump warned the authorities against shooting on demonstrators, saying the U.S. was "locked and loaded and ready to go".

The U.S. and Israeli military campaign began on February 28, with strikes that killed the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering months of warfare. 

Major fighting paused with a truce agreement in June, but resumed this month with a two-week air campaign that Trump has now suspended. He warned on Saturday that U.S. attacks would resume if negotiations fail to deliver an agreement.