Last month, as anti-government protests swept across Iran, Ali Rahbar vanished. For his family, only two chilling facts remained indisputable:
He was alive on January 8th when arrested during a Mashhad demonstration, and two weeks later, he was dead.
His family, desperate for answers, received only one call from the authorities: a grim instruction to collect the body of the 33-year-old fitness coach, who had loved sharing weightlifting videos and poetry online.
The exact details surrounding Mr. Rahbar’s disappearance and tragic death remain deeply unsettling. His case now stands among several others being probed by human rights organizations as possible extrajudicial killings of detainees.
This brutal crackdown on protesters has fueled a firestorm of anger across Iran. The Islamic Republic, now in its 47th year, faces an extremely precarious period, grappling with widespread public dissatisfaction and the looming shadow of potential U.S. intervention.
The government, however, appears unyielding. Human rights groups estimate thousands of protesters have been killed and approximately 40,000 detained, raising serious fears that authorities might resort to executions to crush further dissent.
Speaking to The New York Times, three of Mr. Rahbar’s relatives living outside Iran — who have been in close contact with family members still in the country — shared his story. They requested anonymity to protect their loved ones from potential retaliation.
“No lawyer, no court, no normal procedure whatsoever,” recounted Borhan, Mr. Rahbar’s cousin in Europe. “Nothing happened at all—he was simply executed.”
According to his family, Mr. Rahbar was arrested during a protest in Mashhad on January 8th. This image was sourced from a social media account.
Iranian authorities, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, have steadfastly maintained that no protesters have been executed. The official news outlet for Iran’s judiciary, Mizan, even published an article in late January dismissing Mr. Rahbar’s case as ‘fake news,’ claiming no one by his name had been executed or even detained.
The exact manner of Mr. Rahbar’s death continues to be a volatile point of contention.
In early January, President Trump issued a stark warning, threatening to strike Iran if ‘innocent protesters’ were killed. However, by mid-January, as the protests were mostly suppressed, Mr. Trump retracted these threats, asserting, without presenting evidence, that his actions had prevented the executions of 837 protesters.
Intriguingly, Mr. Rahbar’s name later appeared on a government list of nearly 3,000 individuals reportedly killed during the protests. This list, released last week by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, provides no details on the circumstances of their deaths.
Requests for comment sent to Iran’s Foreign Ministry and the judiciary spokesman went unanswered. The Times was also unable to reach the local prosecutor in Mashhad.
According to his relatives, Mr. Rahbar was laid to rest swiftly and discreetly on January 22nd, in a private service strictly overseen by security forces.
The family was reportedly ordered not to observe the 40th day of mourning, a traditional Shiite Muslim ritual. Whether they—and thousands of other grieving families—choose to defy this order will reveal the true extent of Iran’s success in silencing dissent.
The New York-based Center for Iran Human Rights stated it had received testimony suggesting Mr. Rahbar died under torture, not execution. This claim, however, could not be independently verified, as his cousins reported that security forces forbade the family from examining his body.
“His mother was only allowed to see his face,” his cousin Anna, living abroad, recounted with sorrow.
Ali Rahbar was active on social media, often sharing images like this one. Since his death, supporters have flooded his pages with black hearts and messages of condolence.
Raha Bahreini, an Iran researcher for Amnesty International, highlighted that their organization has collected sufficient evidence from the crackdown to indicate ‘widespread and systemic patterns’ of enforced disappearances, torture, and abuse among detainees.
Amnesty, alongside Hengaw, the Center for Iran Human Rights, and Iran Human Rights, confirmed they are in touch with families who claim authorities contacted them to announce death sentences for their detained relatives, without any prior trial notifications.
Arina Moradi of the Norway-based organization Hengaw noted the uncertainty surrounding these notifications, stating, “Both scenarios remain possible” – whether these are formal death sentences or tactics to intimidate detainees and their families.
According to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, Iranian authorities have historically employed execution, or the threat of it, as a tool to suppress past protests.
He added that trials in previous crackdowns were often expedited, leaving defendants with minimal chance to present a robust legal defense.
In Mr. Rahbar’s distressing case, there was a complete absence of any legal process. Amiry-Moghaddam’s team is now investigating four other suspected extrajudicial killings or executions across different detention sites in Iran.
“It’s the crisis of impunity that continues to fuel these cycles of atrocities in Iran,” asserted Ms. Bahreini of Amnesty International.
For Ali Rahbar’s grieving family, the only solace lies in cherished memories of a vibrant, handsome man who found joy in dance.
“They took his life, but they will never erase who he was,” his cousin Anna firmly stated.
Borhan clarified that Mr. Rahbar wasn’t inherently political but joined the recent protests out of profound frustration with Iran’s clerical leadership and international sanctions. He believed these forces had isolated his generation and stifled their dreams for the future.
“He knew he was risking his life,” Borhan shared. “He told me, ‘This isn’t just for my country, my mother, or my family. I’m thinking about myself too. I want to live; I want to enjoy life, just like everyone else around the world.’”
His cousins revealed that the family was barred from holding a public memorial service to mourn him – a common restriction imposed by authorities on the families of several other deceased protesters.
In Mashhad, the city of his birth and death, some have discreetly found ways to honor Ali Rahbar. Photographs shared by his cousins with The Times depict his gravesite, adorned with a picture of his face surrounded by wilting flowers.
Online, a wave of supporters has flooded Mr. Rahbar’s Instagram page with black hearts and messages of condolence. They often highlight a particular image he once posted of himself, biceps flexing, captioned with the powerful words: ‘Willpower is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.’