Overview
- Alireza Sepahi was executed on Oct. 5 hours after marrying his imprisoned fiancée, Mahshad Keshani, in an informal ceremony conducted by phone from separate cells in Isfahan prisons.
- The nine-minute ceremony was arranged and read aloud by human rights lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi with the fathers of both prisoners on the call and a symbolic dowry of a Quran, a piece of rock candy, and a rose.
- Sepahi was hanged alongside co-defendant Alireza Raisi after being convicted in the case tied to the Jan. 8 Alikhani Square demonstrations that the authorities say left four security personnel dead.
- Human rights organizations allege that many defendants in the Alikhani case were forced to give confessions under torture, that trials were rushed, and that Sepahi’s family was denied burial in his hometown.
- Advocates and exiled opposition leaders have renewed calls for UN investigations and diplomatic pressure ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty on Oct. 10 as part of wider concern over post‑protest repression in Iran.