Iran on a Repressive Execution Tear

Rights groups condemned the latest executions and warned that they could signal a wider crackdown on protesters facing death sentences. (file photo, MEHR)

 

 

"With the breakdown of the ceasefire and the resumption of the war, we are deeply concerned that the authorities will exploit the situation to intensify the execution of political prisoners."

"The international community -- and the European Union in particular -- must make an immediate moratorium on executions a central issue."

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director, Iran Human Rights NGO (IHR) 

"Hundreds of political prisoners and protesters are currently facing capital charges", with around 100 already sentenced to death, warns the Iran Human Rights NGO. Over 70 people await the gallows in the central city of Isfahan. Iran's "Killing machine" must be a central issue for dialogue with the Islamic Republic, the IHR has repeatedly stressed.

 

Iran executed Erfan Esfandiari, reportedly 18, and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, a 23-year-old Afghan national, on July 19. Iranian authorities accused them of involvement in the deaths of four members of the security forces.  IHR

 

Vahid Baniamerian, 34, and a physics academic, was sentenced to death, included with sentences issued to five other defendants charged with membership in the Iran-outlawed People's Mujahedin (MEK) organization. He and the five others have been hanged, their families only discovering their execution when it was reported by Iranian state media reports.

 

Dozens of Iranians identified as political prisoners by rights groups, are political prisoners that have been executed since the U.S.-Israel aerial bombardment of Iran began. They represent Iranian protesters against the regime, as well as people accused of being members of banned groups, along with others who have been convicted on charges of spying. 

 

File photo by ISNA shows Rajaeishahr Prison west of Tehran

 

Since the earliest days of the war which came to a halt in March, Iran has committed to increasing executions, interpreted by activists as a scheme to instill fear within Iranian society, with a view to preventing mass protests that shook the regime's leadership last year, from recommencing. The rupture of the on-again-off-again ceasefire has rights groups fearing that executions will continue to be expedited as another intimidation tactic to ensure silence prevails within the fearful populace.

 

According to Iranian authorities, the convicted are guilty of having carried out deadly attacks against security forces, or having targeted public buildings. Rights groups respond by charging that those arrested and confined in Iran's prisons were tortured and convicted in fast-tracked trials.  

 

So far this year according to IHR, over 400 people have been executed, even as the bulk of capital punishment strikes at those hanged on drug-related or murder charges. Inmates at Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran, in nearby Karaj, staged a sit-in protest in the wake of fellow prisoners taken to solitary confinement preparatory to hanging on drug charges.  

"These are prisoners who committed errors simply to afford the basic necessities of life, and they deeply regret their actions."

"Where else in the world is a human life taken for a first mistake?"

Prisoner statement 

Over 2,150 Iranians were put to death in Iran in 2025. Identifying it as one of the world's most prolific executioners, second only to China.  

 

Radio Free Europe / AFP