London, 10 August 2026— Justice for Iran (JFI) has filed complaints with the National Contact Points of Korea and Japan, accusing Hyundai Motor Company and Furukawa UNIC Corporation of failing to prevent their branded equipment from being used to carry out a public execution in Iran. The organisation is calling on both companies, and the OECD mechanisms overseeing them, to take immediate action.
On 28 July 2026, two protestors were hanged in public in Shahid Alikhani Square, Isfahan. Video and photographic evidence gathered by JFI shows a Hyundai truck fitted with a UNIC model crane, bearing both companies’ markings, was the instrument used in the killing.
“No company should have to learn that its machinery was used to hang someone from the news,” said Regina Paulose, International Criminal Lawyer at Justice for Iran. “Even if this news comes as a surprise to the companies, Hyundai and Furukawa UNIC now have clear evidence that their equipment ended up being used as makeshift gallows in Isfahan. The situation is deeply disturbing. The question is what they can do next.”
Screenshot of the crane truck and the crane used to execute protestors
Background
Amirhossein Safari and Abolfazl Sepahi were among twelve sentenced to death in a single closed hearing, following nationwide protests that swept Iran in January 2026. The crackdown that followed is the deadliest in the Islamic Republic’s history, with the government itself acknowledging over 3,000 deaths while the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, said in a media interview that at least 5,000 people had been killed, noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000.
Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari
Fifty-nine people were arrested over unrest at Shahid Alikhani Square, where four security personnel died; twelve were sentenced to death without individualised findings of responsibility. Seven UN human rights experts called for the executions to be halted, warning the process fell short of fair trial standards and citing allegations of enforced disappearance, ill treatment, and coerced confessions aired on state television before trial. Two of the twelve men were executed on 19 July inside prison. Two more were hanged in public on 28 July, at the same square.
Two companies, one incident
JFI’s complaints, filed under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, allege that both companies:
- Failed in their duty to respect human rights (Chapter 4(1))
- Failed to respond adequately to a foreseeable misuse of their products (Chapter 4(2))
- Should have foreseen the risk, given Iran’s documented pattern of using vehicles and heavy machinery in executions (Chapter 4(5))
Hyundai Motor Company, which says it does not do business in Iran because of international sanctions, is nonetheless linked to a truck displaying its logo at the execution site.
Furukawa UNIC Corporation, a Tokyo based crane manufacturer with subsidiaries in Thailand, China and Russia, is linked via a crane bearing its markings, fitted to the truck used in the hanging.
What JFI is demanding
JFI is calling on both companies to:
- Publicly repudiate the use of their equipment in this execution
- Introduce binding safeguards with distributors and partners in Iran to prevent further misuse
- Adopt end use screening for future sales into markets with a known pattern of using industrial equipment in executions
JFI has asked the Korean and Japanese NCPs to accept the complaints, facilitate dialogue with both companies, and issue findings on whether the Guidelines were breached.
Why it matters
Two NCPs are now examining conduct arising from the same incident, a rare test of whether the OECD’s non-binding enforcement mechanism can respond in a coordinated, credible way when multiple multinational supply chains converge in a single human rights violation. This is not JFI’s first engagement with the NCP process: the organisation has previously brought specific instances before National Contact Points, with outcomes documented here. JFI says the case should prompt lawmakers to revisit export and end use screening obligations for heavy machinery manufacturers, and to scrutinise how sanctioned markets continue to receive branded equipment through third parties.
