Examination of Body Seizures, Secret Burials, Deprivation of the Right to Mourn, Status of Graves of the Executed, and the Resilience of Grieving Families After the Execution of Protesters from the Nationwide Protests of December 2025-January 2026.
Iran Human Rights Society, Friday 3 July 2026 – The repression of those arrested in the nationwide protests of December 2025-January 2026 did not end with the execution of sentences; rather, it extended to the privacy of families, the bodies of the martyrs, and the right to mourn. This report examines the policy of seizing bodies, forced and secret burials, psychological pressure on grieving families, and their civil resistance against this form of re-repression.
Policy of Seizing Bodies; Taking Corpses Hostage to Force Families into Silence
One of the most prominent examples of violating human dignity in dealing with those executed in the nationwide protests of December 2025-January 2026 was the security institutions’ refusal to hand over the bodies to families in a timely manner or conditioning it on silence and non-disclosure. This action was taken with several major goals:
Prevention of gatherings: Fear of turning funeral ceremonies, third-day, seventh-day, and fortieth-day ceremonies into new centers of street protests. Conditioning body handover on silence: Pressure on families to refrain from talking to media and human rights institutions in exchange for the promise of handing over the body or announcing the burial location.
Concealing traces of torture: Preventing independent examination of the bodies by doctors or families in order to document traces of anti-human behavior during detention.
Secret and Anonymous Burials; Deprivation of the Right to Have a Specific Grave
Documented reports show that in the overwhelming majority of cases of executions related to nationwide protests in the years 2025 and 2026, security institutions themselves took action to bury the bodies at night and secretly in remote areas, marginal sections of cemeteries (such as nameless and unmarked plots) or cities other than the deceased’s place of residence.
In many cases, families were informed only a few hours after the burial and were deprived of the right to choose the burial location, holding religious rites, or customary mourning. In some cases, the graves of these individuals lacked a specific gravestone or were marked with numerical signs so that the process of identification and gathering at the graves would face obstacles.
Systematic Psychological Torture; Imposing Additional Trauma on Survivors
Keeping families suspended between fear and hope, not announcing the exact time of sentence execution until the last moments, and then hiding the location of the bodies’ burial is a clear example of organized psychological pressure and imposing additional trauma on the survivors.
This anti-human behavior places families in a state of “unexpressed and suspended grief.” Security institutions, with continuous threats to arrest other family members, tried to nip any cry for justice in the bud. However, the courage of families such as the survivors of Mehrdad Mohammadi-Nia in insisting on their natural right has revealed these hidden dimensions of repression.
Families’ Reaction and Resilience; Turning Grief into a Lever for Justice
Contrary to the strategy of creating terror, the families of those arrested and executed in the nationwide protests of December 2025-January 2026 turned into an inseparable chain of resilience and seeking justice:
Presence at nameless graves: Families, by identifying approximate burial locations, turned these spaces into living symbols of commemoration by covering them with flowers and lighting candles. Civil solidarity: Collective meetings among families of martyrs from different cities created a network of emotional, social, and legal support. Continuation of seeking justice: Insistence on clarifying the hidden dimensions of trials, execution of sentences, and post-execution concealments continued despite summonses and security threats.
Summary of the Set of Articles
This trilogy about the situation of detainees and those executed in the December 2025-January 2026 uprising shows that the cycle of repression in Iran is a multi-layered process: it begins from the streets and widespread arrests, continues in courts lacking guarantees of fair trial, and is even reproduced after death in the form of seizing bodies, secret burials, and pressure on grieving families. However, independent recording and documentation of these events by human rights institutions has prevented the forgetting of victims and strengthened the ground for future legal accountability.
Where Are the Bodies?; Iran Human Rights Society’s Call for Identifying Graves of Nameless Political Prisoners
In this regard, Iran Human Rights Society, by issuing the call “Where Are the Bodies?”, has asked families, witnesses, and informed individuals to provide information related to the burial locations of political prisoners and those executed in nationwide protests to this institution. The purpose of this call is to identify the graves of those executed whose bodies were not handed over to their families and to document these cases for preserving historical truth and supporting the families’ right to know the fate of their loved ones.
Invitation to Register Complaints by Families
Another part of this call is dedicated to registering complaints by families who have been deprived of receiving the bodies or information about the burial location of their loved ones. This action is carried out with the aim of documenting cases of human rights violations and creating the possibility of follow-up at the international level.
Families can help the process of recording and following up on these cases by providing information and registering complaints and participate in the path of clarifying the truth.
Final Call; History Is Our Witness
We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, the perpetrators of these crimes will be tried and held accountable before history. History has always been and will be the witness of truth. What is recorded today will become an undeniable document tomorrow of the bloody history of the Iranian nation in achieving freedom.
All citizens are requested to contact Iran Human Rights Society for registering complaints through the following communication channels:
Email: info@iranhrs.org
Contact Form: https://iranhrs.org/contact-us/
WhatsApp: +31 6 17325233
Telegram: @MaryamHashemai
Instagram: maryamhashemie2020
Please send your information by referring to the official channels and pages of Iran Human Rights Society. Your participation is an effective step on the path of truth, justice, and accountability.
Request from International Institutions for Handling
In this call, international institutions and human rights organizations are also requested to pay attention to the issue of non-delivery of the bodies of those executed and to take action to examine these cases. This request has been raised in conditions where reports indicate the continuation of this process in recent years.
Where Are the Bodies; A Demand for Truth and Accountability
The question “Where are the bodies?” still remains as a fundamental demand. Families have the right to be informed about the fate of their loved ones and to have the possibility of burial and mourning for them. Answering this question is considered part of the process of achieving truth and accountability regarding these cases.
This call is an effort to record and document this demand and create a path for its follow-up; a path that can help clarify the fate of individuals whose bodies have disappeared and be the voice of families who have been waiting for answers for years.
See also the below articles:
- Arghavan Falahi Death Sentence Sparks Global Outcry Over Iran Political Prisoners
- Shahriar Barati: The One Thousand One Hundredth Day of Imprisonment in Exile
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