“Several young people born in the second half of the 2000s are sitting next to me. They are under 20 years old. They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side. I ask them what they are doing. They answer: ‘We prepare our necks for the executioner’s noose.'”
This account by Soheil Arabi, a photoblogger who has been imprisoned several times since 2013 and who was recently released from one of Iran’s largest prisons, Ghezel Hesar, after two months, offers a disturbing insight into the human rights violations in Iran during the current conflict.
Since Israel and the United States attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, the world has focused primarily on the war, the Iranian nuclear program, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the future balance of power in the Middle East.
But, within the country, the groups of human rights they fear a wave of repression increasingly lethal, due to the ongoing war.
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI), Iran It already accounted for 80% of the global increase in executions during 2025. The organization stated that, during that year, “Iran executed at least 2,159 people, more than double the number in 2024.”
For almost half a century, the Iranian regime’s government has used the death penalty as a tool to repress all political opposition. In recent years, Iran has been among the countries with the highest number of executions in the world.
According to reports from Iranian opposition groups, at least 40 people have been executed for political and security-related crimes since the start of the war in Iran, while at least 78 others remain on death row. According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based organization, in the six weeks leading up to the end of April, Iran recorded an average of one political execution every two days.
Possible crimes against humanity
The stories about executions are chilling. Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, 34, a former martial arts champion, was accused of working for Israel – he frequently traveled to participate in sports competitions – and was hanged without seeing his family again. Kourosh Keyvani, a dual Swedish-Iranian national, was arrested in 2025, during the first round of fighting between Israel and Iran, and executed by hanging in March of this year.
Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, a 68-year-old woman, was sentenced to death on charges of “armed rebellion.” His first trial lasted just 10 minutes and did not have the presence of an independent lawyer. Although her verdict was overturned, she was found guilty again after a new trial in late May.
“Documented patterns, such as murders, torture, forced disappearances, mass arrests and political executions, could constitute crimes against humanity if it is proven that they were carried out in an organized manner and as part of a state policy,” Raha Bahreini, an Amnesty International researcher specializing in Iran, told DW.
The intensity of the recent crackdown has reached unprecedented levels, even compared to Iran’s record, Bahraini stressed, saying the risk of further serious human rights violations remains high.
Amnesty International has also documented practices amounting to torture, such as mock executions, mock hangings, placing a gun in a prisoner’s mouth, severe beatings, suspension by limbs, prolonged solitary confinement, and deprivation of food and medical care.
According to Amnesty International, more than 6,000 people have been arrested since the start of the war. Among those detained are protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, artists, civil activists, students, teachers, members of ethnic and religious minorities, families seeking justice for the victims, and people with dual nationality.
“Espionage” has been one of the main charges in the recent wave of prosecutions. Observers maintain that authorities are using the death penalty to increase the cost of dissent and reinforce deterrence.
Young people and adolescents sentenced to death
Among those executed or sentenced to death in recent political and security-related cases were at least five people between the ages of 18 and 21. In late April, the name of Matin Mohammadi, a 17-year-old arrested in January on charges of setting fire to a mosque in Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran, appeared on lists of those awaiting execution.
“The Iranian authorities intend, through executions and repression, to intimidate a generation that has demonstrated in the streets in recent years to the point that they will never protest again,” says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, founder of the organization Iran Human Rights.
Can executions be stopped?
According to AI’s Bahraini, there are three legal avenues to hold Iranian officials accountable: “The referral of the situation in Iran to the International Criminal Court by the UN Security Council, the prosecution of the perpetrators under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the creation of a specific international justice mechanism for Iran.”
Bahraini notes that the international community must do everything possible to increase the costs of such human rights violations, and that the silence of many States has contributed to persistent impunity.
Amiry-Moghaddam emphasizes that “placing executions and human rights violations at the center of any negotiation or dialogue with the Islamic republic is one of the few ways to stop Iran’s execution machine.”
