( CNN ) -- Iran hanged two men at the end of January -- the first political prisoners known to be executed in Iran since the demonstrations protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , according to Amnesty International . It 's still not entirely clear what Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani 's crime was . Rahmanipour 's lawyer said he was already in jail on election day in June 2009 , so he could n't have been involved in the post-election uprising , she said . But whatever their earthly crimes were , the two men executed last month were also accused of another offense far more serious than simply protesting against a government . They were convicted of being `` mohareb , '' enemies of God . That is the worst possible crime in Shiite Muslim law , according to Abbas Milani , the director of Iranian studies at Stanford University . The legal implications are clear , he said . `` A mohareb , according to Shiite law , is executed , '' he said . That the regime is labeling its opponents enemies of God is a sign of how rattled it is by the protests , he said . `` They were completely caught off guard by the ferocity and extent of the opposition and they pulled out all the stops , '' he said . Traditional accusations did not succeed in intimidating the protesters , he said . `` They accused them of working in cahoots with the United States and Israel . When it did n't work , they said you are mohareb , '' he said . Legally , there 's nowhere for the government to escalate from here , he added . `` I ca n't imagine them upping the legal ante , '' he said . `` What you can do is increase the number of people they are executing in an in-your-face manner to bring terror to the people . '' In fact , at least one other person is on death row for being a mohareb , according to the Tehran Judiciary as quoted by the semi-official Iran Students News Agency . Labeling opponents of the government `` enemies of God '' is a relatively new tactic , said Iranian journalist Amir Taheri , who argued that religious tolerance was more traditionally Iranian . `` It was not like that the beginning of the revolution . The revolution was an Islamic revolution but they did not try to give a religious aspect , '' he told CNN 's Hala Gorani . `` Now unfortunately they are giving a very dangerous and arguably un-Iranian religious aspect to it by hating the Jews , hating the Baha'is , [ using ] anti-Christian propaganda , executing or even murdering some Sunni Muslim preachers , '' said Taheri , who fled Iran after the revolution . The religious intolerance `` is really completely new and this is one of the ugliest aspects '' of the current regime , he said . Milani said that even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , the founder of the Islamic regime , did not accuse his opponents of being enemies of God . `` In the early days of the revolution , Khomeini threatened to declare these people as mohareb , but I do n't remember them ever passing a law that says if you go out and demonstrate , you are a mohareb , '' Milani said . Khomeini leveled a different charge at his opponents , calling them `` mofsed fel-Arz , '' or he who brings corruption , Milani said . The charge was `` introduced by Khomeini , and they killed thousands of people , but at that time even Khomeini was averse '' to describing his opponents as mohareb , he said . Using it now implicitly `` beatifies Khomeini , '' Milani said . `` They are making him a god . '' It also could be a sign of panic on the part of the authorities , he said . `` It takes a lot of ... political insecurity to say if you do n't do something I tell you to do , you are an enemy of God , '' he said .
Those convicted of being `` mohareb , '' enemies of God , are executed . Two men convicted of the charge were hanged in January , another faces death . Lesser charges failed to intimidate protesters , Iranian analyst says .