Iran is set to execute its first female protester tied to the January 2026 uprising in Tehran, according to multiple human rights organizations. 

Bita Hemmati was named in a collective death sentencing alongside three other defendants, including her husband, Mohammadreza Majid-Asl, 34, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The couple’s reported neighbors, Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, were also sentenced to death, while a relative, Amir Hemmati, received five years in prison.

The verdicts mark some of the most recent capital punishment decisions amid the government’s broader crackdown on suppressing unrest. Possibly thousands of protesters have reportedly been killed since demonstrations erupted this year.

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«Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl and Bita Hemmati are a couple living in Tehran, and Amir Hemmati is a relative of the two,» a source told HRANA. «Kourosh Zamaninejad and Behrouz Zamaninejad were living in the same residential building, and their arrests took place simultaneously.»

No execution date has yet been given.

The Tehran Revolutionary Court reportedly accused the defendants of multiple offenses, including national security disruption in connection with the «hostile government of the United States,» according to HRANA.

On Jan. 8 and 9, the defendants allegedly used explosives and weapons, threw objects such as concrete blocks and incendiary materials from rooftops, injured security forces, and engaged in «propaganda against the regime» in an effort to undermine security, according to federal authorities.

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In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

Alongside the capital punishment verdicts, the court also issued five years of discretionary imprisonment and ordered the seizure of their personal assets. 

Officials added that the fifth associate, Amir Hemmati, was specifically convicted of «assembly and collusion against national security» and «propaganda against the regime,» the groups said.

Human rights activists further raised concerns that the defendants’ confessions may have been coerced, citing allegations of torture and interrogation.

Mourners hold pictures of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Isfahan, Iran, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Payman Shahsanaei/ISNA via AP)

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The organizations, which are urging a halt to the executions, also claimed a lack of specific evidence linking the accused to the alleged crimes, and argued that Tehran is seeking to intimidate the public in order to prevent future civilian unrest. 

Widespread protests first erupted in late December 2025 in Tehran amid an economic crisis marked by a collapsing currency and soaring inflation. Tensions then quickly escalated into broader anti-government unrest that spread across multiple cities.

Washington officially joined the conflict with the launch of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, 2026, when it conducted massive joint airstrikes with Israel that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. 

EXCLUSIVE: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department for the whistleblower whose complaint helped trigger President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment and for the former intelligence community inspector general who notified Congress of the allegations, Fox News Digital has learned.

«I want to refer information that may constitute possible criminal activity in violation of federal criminal law committed by one or more former employees of the intelligence community,» ODNI’s general counsel wrote in the referral to the Justice Department.

Fox News Digital on Wednesday reviewed the referrals ODNI sent to the Justice Department. 

«The possible criminal activity concerns the circumstances described in the following congressional briefings: Discussion with Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019); Briefing by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019),» it continued.  

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The referrals come after DNI Tulsi Gabbard released documents earlier this week exposing what was described as a «coordinated effort» by elements within the intelligence community—including then-Inspector General Michael Atkinson, to «manufacture a conspiracy» that was used as the basis to impeach Trump in 2019.

An intelligence official told Fox News Digital that the language in the referral is broad, but that it’s specifically directed at Atkinson and the whistleblower who reported concerns about President Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

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ODNI directed Fox News Digital to a recent X post from Gabbard when asked for comment on the referrals. 

«Newly-declassified records expose how deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that Congress used to usurp the will of the American people and impeach duly-elected President @realDonaldTrump in 2019,» Gabbard posted to X on Monday. 

President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands at the start of a joint news conference following a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP)

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice on Wednesday afternoon regarding the referrals. 

The documents Gabbard released earlier this week include transcripts from Atkinson’s closed-door testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which were withheld from the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment trial. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., led a vote to release the transcripts in March.

ODNI said the documents confirmed that Atkinson «failed to conduct basic due diligence and willfully exceeded his statutory jurisdiction to mischaracterize the president’s phone call with Zelensky as an ‘urgent concern’ to Congress.»

Atkinson, during his investigation, found that the whistleblower showed indications of «political bias» and was «in favor of a rival political candidate,» while still deeming the complaint a matter of «urgent concern.»

Atkinson received a complaint in August 2019 from the whistleblower, who was raising concerns about Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pressing him to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine. The president specifically suggested Zelensky look into Hunter Biden’s ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and former President Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.

Hunter Biden was quietly under federal investigation, beginning in 2018, at the time of the call, a probe prompted by suspicious foreign transactions.

President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, step off Air Force One, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Trump’s request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo because millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also said Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democrat political opponent.

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings and Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars per month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

«I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’» Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

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«Well, son of a b—-, he got fired,» Biden said during the event. «And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.»

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and they say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

Meanwhile, House Republicans, back in 2019 and 2020, sought to refer Atkinson and the whistleblower to the DOJ for investigation. 

Republicans, at the time, complained that the whistleblower made contact with the staff of then-Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in advance — though Schiff downplayed the nature of that contact.

The White House, under Trump’s first term, released a declassified version of the whistleblower complaint, which revealed that the whistleblower’s concerns stemmed from the secondhand accounts of «more than half a dozen U.S. officials.»

President Donald Trump speaks during a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The declassified whistleblower complaint, though, stated: «I was not a direct witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleagues’ accounts of these events to be credible, because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another.»

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Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives in December 2019. He was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the matter Wednesday.