Aqil Keshavarz was executed on “Israel spying” charges amid a sharp rise in executions, post-war securitization, mass arrests, and expanding death-penalty laws.
The Islamic Republic carried out the death sentence of Aqil Keshavarz, a 27-year-old architecture student at Shahrood University and originally from Isfahan, on the charge of “spying for Israel.” He was arrested during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, and according to reports, he was subjected to interrogation and torture aimed at extracting a forced confession.
The case of Aqil Keshavarz
Aqil Keshavarz, an architecture student at Shahrood University, was arrested in Khordad 1404 (May 22–June 21, 2025) by the IRGC Intelligence Organization. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, he was held for one week in the IRGC Intelligence detention facility in Urmia, where he was “interrogated and tortured to obtain a forced confession of spying for Israel.”
The same report states that he was imprisoned in Evin Prison at the time Israel bombed it, and was then transferred to another detention facility. After the interrogation period ended, he was moved to Urmia Central Prison.
In late summer 2025, Branch One of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia, presided over by Sajad Doosti, sentenced him to death on the charge of “spying for Israel.” He was transferred to solitary confinement for execution on 26 Azar 1404 (December 16, 2025).
Mizan News Agency, the official outlet of the judiciary, described his “crime” as “spying for Israel,” “communication and intelligence cooperation” with Israel, and “filming military and security sites.” News of the execution sparked widespread anger and criticism in public debate and on social media.
According to published reports cited in this coverage, since the 12-day Iran–Israel war, at least 17 people have been executed on accusations of cooperating with Israel—an escalation observers interpret as a sign of a deep political and security crisis.
Execution numbers in 2025: a rapidly accelerating pattern
Human rights sources report that the Islamic Republic has executed more than 1,870 people since the start of 2024, dated here as 12 Dey 1403 (January 1, 2024). In December 2025—still not finished at the time of reporting—at least 189 prisoners were executed in less than three weeks, from 10 Azar 1404 (November 30, 2025) onward. In November 2025, at least 152 people were reportedly executed—an average of roughly five executions per day.
Another set of reporting presents even higher totals, describing more than 2,000 executions since the beginning of 2025, and stating that in Azar 1404 (November 22–December 21, 2025) alone at least 357 executions took place, with some reportedly carried out in public. Taken together, these figures are presented as evidence of an accelerating execution regime.
The death penalty in Iran functions less as “deterrence” than as an instrument of state power: a central mechanism of intimidation, structural violence, and political control. They underscore the recurring conditions under which executions are issued and carried out—lack of fair-trial guarantees, forced confessions, and direct intervention by security institutions—while warning that an irreversible punishment always carries the risk of judicial error and political abuse.
After the war: securitization, mass arrests, and expanded death-penalty law
Within this wider frame, the 12-day Iran–Israel war is described as providing a fresh pretext for intensifying the security atmosphere inside Iran—tightening repression and introducing new restrictions. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, in a report published in September 2025, warned of “horrific crackdowns” after the war “under the pretext of national security.”
Iranian officials have also stated that more than 700 people were arrested after the war on suspicion of espionage or cooperation with Israel. In the same period, parliament passed a law titled “Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries,” described as expanding the scope for issuing death sentences and intensifying concerns about the further erosion of fair-trial standards.
Wider repression and prison resistance: “Tuesdays No to Execution”
Alongside executions, a broader crackdown on expression and dissent are taking place. In Azar 1404 (November 22–December 21, 2025) at least 127 people were arrested, and that many civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, and ordinary citizens faced heavy prison sentences, flogging, and fines. They also stress that migrants, religious minorities, and national minorities are often hit first and hardest by the expanding machinery of repression.
Against this backdrop, prison-based resistance is reported to continue. The “Tuesdays No to Execution” campaign is described as entering its 100th week, with the women’s ward of Yazd Prison joining. On 2 Dey 1404 (December 22, 2025), prisoners in 55 prisons reportedly went on hunger strike—an act framed as collective defiance against the normalization of daily executions.
Placed within this broader landscape, the execution of Aqil Keshavarz is presented not as an isolated judicial act, but as part of a larger pattern: a steep rise in executions throughout 2025, intensified securitization after the war, expanded death-penalty legislation, and a widening crackdown—met, inside prisons, by organized resistance against the death penalty itself.
