Iran executes man convicted in 2022 protest killing

Iran executed Aref Khoshkar on July 18 after convicting him of killing a security force member during the 2022 protests, a case that keeps the unrest and the state’s response at the center of the country’s justice system. Iranian authorities said Khoshkar was armed with a pellet gun and fired at security personnel during unrest in Tehran, wounding Salman Amirahmadi, who later died in a hospital.

The execution is the latest sign that Tehran has not closed the book on the 2022 demonstrations, which spread across Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. Those protests triggered a broad security crackdown, and protest-linked cases have continued to move through the courts and prisons long after the streets fell quiet.

Human-rights groups have repeatedly argued that Iran uses capital punishment not only as punishment but also as deterrence, especially in politically sensitive cases. When a defendant is executed for an act tied to the protests, the case raises fresh questions about the reliability of the trial, the scope of judicial review and whether the state is using the death penalty to reinforce control after a period of unrest.

Khoshkar’s case also fits a wider pattern. Iran has carried out other executions connected to the 2022 protests, including the execution of Mehran Bahramian and two other men detained amid the nationwide unrest. Each additional execution keeps the protests in the present tense inside Iran’s legal and political system, even as officials frame the cases as ordinary justice for violence against security personnel.

For families of those killed in the demonstrations, and for activists still pressing for accountability, the execution sharpens the unanswered questions left behind by the unrest: who was protected, who was punished and whether the state has ever provided a transparent accounting of what happened in 2022. For Tehran, the message is more immediate. The protests may have faded from the streets, but the state is still using prosecutions and executions to enforce their aftermath.