Live Blog: First Public Trial Of Protesters Begins In Iran

In what appears to be the first public trial of a protester related to the recent unrest in Iran, the country's judiciary has released images from a court session in the city of Malard on January 27.

The Mizan News Agency reported that the trial opened against multiple defendants accused of involvement in the death of Shahin Dehghani, a law enforcement officer, in Malard earlier this month.

According to news reports, the first defendant in the case is Mohammad Abbasi. His trial was held publicly, during which images of Dehghani's bloodied corpse were displayed on a screen in the courtroom.

The judiciary accuses Abbasi of killing Dehghani by stabbing him with a knife.

The Etemaad newspaper reported that Abbasi's lawyer told the court that the victim had suffered multiple wounds, not all of which were inflicted with the defendant's weapon.

Human rights organizations, criticizing Iran's judicial procedures, consider such trials to lack fair judicial standards.

Iran's security forces have arrested thousands of people on charges of involvement in killings or destruction of public property in the state's brutal crackdown. Some were forced to make confessions on state television.

Recently released video footage from the January 8 protests in Mashhad, Iran, show a group of protesters taking cover from repeated gunfire from government forces.

In another part of the footage, one of the protesters is seen carrying an injured person on his shoulders.

High-profile political prisoners in Iran's notorious Evin Prison have condemned the regime's brutal crackdown, speaking out through smuggled notes.

Reza Khandan, an imprisoned activist, wrote in a note published on January 26 by his wife Nasrin Sotoudeh, that the events of January were not just suppression, "but an attempt to break the nation's back and leave behind the 'scorched earth' that had been promised earlier."

Khandan, who has been imprisoned since December 2024, emphasized that the full extent of the regime's crimes is still unclear, adding, "What has been determined with certainty so far has been one of the most brutal, horrific, and bloody massacres...in the [recent] history of world protests."

"We, and all citizens, human rights activists, and lawyers," Khandan wrote "must demand the establishment of a special court to investigate crimes against humanity and to investigate and try all those who were involved in this killing and repression."

Another political prisoner in Evin Prison, Abolfazl Ghadiani, called the bloody suppression of the protests a "crime against humanity."

Ghadiani wrote that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei "is aware of the extent of the Iranian nation's disgust toward him and clearly knows that the people will not tolerate it."

The crackdown was Khamenei's revenge, Ghadiani wrote.

The elderly political prisoner wrote that "the most peaceful and nonviolent way to change the regime is for the criminal and criminal dictator Ali Khamenei of Iran to ask for forgiveness from the Iranian people, resign, and step aside so that the Iranian people can choose the government of their choice by holding a referendum to change the regime."

In response to a reporter’s question about the reason for the continued internet shutdown in Iran, Fatemeh Mohajerani, a government spokeswoman, said it was necessary to "preserve human lives."

The spokeswoman did not give any further explanation.

Human rights organizations have said that Iran's internet shutdown has meant it is not possible to obtain accurate information and statistics on those killed, injured, and detained.

Ilan Berman, the senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council and a veteran national-security policy adviser, writes in Forbes that the Iranian government has invested billions of dollars in domestic internet infrastructure in recent years, despite the country's economy cratering.

The Forbes report says that these investments reflect "a clear recognition in Tehran that connectivity is the lifeblood of the domestic opposition -- and that controlling it is worth virtually any cost."

According to Berman, since the Green Movement protests in 2009, the Iranian government has gradually created a complex architecture of censorship and information control -- and this structure has been further developed in recent years with the help of technology from Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.

Instead of saving lives, Berman writes that the internet shutdown has enabled the regime's brutality, with Iran using the "sustained media blackout to carry out the most extensive repression in its history."

Berman is a member of RFE/RL's board of directors.

In an interview with the Axios website, US President Donald Trump said the situation with Iran is "in flux" because the US has sent a big "armada" but thinks that Tehran wants to cut a deal.

In the interview, which took place on January 26, the US president declined to discuss the options his national-security team presented to him regarding Iran or which option he preferred.

At the same time, Trump said that diplomacy was still an option, adding: "They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk."

The US president reportedly came close to ordering strikes on targets inside Iran earlier this month after thousands of Iranian protesters were killed. Ultimately, Trump postponed the decision and ordered a boost in the US military presence in the region.

According to Axios, a senior US official told reporters that the White House "is open for business" when it comes to negotiations with Iran. "If they want to contact us and they know what the terms are, then we're going to have the conversation," the US official said. The US conditions for a deal have been conveyed to Iran many times over the past year, the official added.

Regarding a potential deal, Axios reports that:

U.S. officials say any deal would have to include the removal of all enriched uranium from Iran, a cap on Iran's stockpile of long-range missiles, a change in Iran's policy of supporting proxies in the region and a ban on independent uranium enrichment in the country. The Iranians have said they're willing to talk but have not signaled any willingness to accept those terms.

According to Axios, "sources with knowledge of the situation say Trump hasn't made a final decision" on a potential strike against Iran.

With the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and supporting warships in the US Central Command area of responsibility -- spanning Northeast Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and portions of South Asia -- Trump "will likely hold more consultations this week and be presented with additional military options."

With regional tensions rising and a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) warning to avoid Iranian airspace, many international airlines have changed or canceled their flight schedules in the Middle East.

The Aerospace Global News website wrote on January 26 that so far these changes have affected routes to Israel, cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Jordan, and parts of Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

According to the report, United Airlines and Air Canada have suspended flights to Tel Aviv. Indian airline IndiGo has also suspended flights to Almaty, Baku, Tashkent, and Tbilisi. The Lufthansa Group has canceled flights to Tehran until the end of March and has limited its services to Tel Aviv and Amman to daytime hours only so that crews do not have to spend layovers overnight.

Flydubai has canceled flights to Tehran, Mashhad, and Shiraz, but is continuing other routes with rerouting. Air France, KLM, and British Airways have cautiously resumed operations after short-term suspensions.

Regional giants, including Emirates and Qatar Airways, are continuing to operate by rerouting and increasing flight times. In addition, Israel's El Al has introduced flexible cancellation policies to ease passengers' concerns.

From the US State Department's account in Persian:

"Recently, Iran's Foreign Minister, Araqhchi, labeled peaceful protests as 'terrorist operations' on social media. It takes a great deal of audacity to accuse peace-loving Iranians of terrorism, while the Islamic Republic itself resorts to violence and intimidation to suppress its people and simultaneously supports actual terrorists abroad."

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, has warned against abandoning the Iranian people:

Good morning.

According to the latest aggregated data compiled by the US-based human rights agency HRANA, as of January 26, the total number of confirmed deaths in Iran has reached 6,126. Of these, 5,777 were protesters, 86 were children under the age of 18, 214 were forces affiliated with the government, and 49 were non-protesters or civilians. The number of deaths still under investigation stands at 17,091, according to the human rights group.

German MEP Hannah Neumann, the chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Iran, addressed the assembly on January 26. "We're witnessing a systematic destruction of lives in Iran. The regime violently erases an entire generation of young people," she said.

US President Donald Trump told Axios in a January 26 interview that the situation with Iran is "in flux" because he sent a "big armada" to the region but thinks Tehran genuinely wants to cut a deal.

We are now closing the live blog for today. We'll be back again tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to follow the latest developments in Iran.