Reports: Iran uses war as cover for increased executions
Iran already had one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world. Now, rights groups say, the country is using the current conflict
Iran already had one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world. Now, rights groups say, the country is using the current conflict to carry out even more executions, in an attempt to repress dissent. "Several young men born in the second half of the 2000s are sitting beside me. They are under 20. They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side. I ask them what they are doing. They say: 'We are preparing our necks for the hangman's noose'." This account by Soheil Arabi, a photoblogger who has been jailed several times since 2013 and who was recently released from one of Iran's largest prisons, Ghezel Hesar, after two months, offers a disturbing glimpse into human rights violations in Iran during the current conflict. Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, the world has been mostly focused on the war, Iran's nuclear program, the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the future balance of power in the Middle East. But inside the country, rights groups fear an increasingly deadly wave of repression, thanks to the ongoing war. Iran already accounted for 80% of a global surge in executions during 2025, according to rights group Amnesty International. During 2025, "Iran executed at least 2,159 people, more than double its 2024 figure," the group said. Observers say Iran is using the war as cover for more extreme repression of political opponents Image: rcs.ir For nearly half a century, the Iranian government has used the death penalty as a tool to suppress any political opposition.
In recent years, Iran has been among the world's leading executioners. According to reports from Iranian opposition groups, at least 40 people have been executed in political and security-related cases since the Iran war began, while at least 78 others remain on death row. According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group that has documented detentions, in the six weeks up to the end of April, Iran recorded an average of one political execution every two days. Potential crimes against humanity The stories aboutexecutions make for grim reading. Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, 34, a former martial arts champion, was accused of working for Israel – he regularly travelled for sports contests – and he was hanged without ever getting to see his family again. Dual Swedish-Iranian national Kourosh Keyvani was arrested in 2025, during the first round of fighting between Israel and Iran, then hanged in March this year. A 68-year-old woman Zahra Shahbaz Tabari was sentenced to death on charges of "armed rebellion." Her first trial only lasted 10 minutes and she had no independent lawyer present. Although her verdict was overturned, she was found guilty again after a retrial in late May. "Documented patterns such as killings, torture, enforced disappearances, mass arrests and political executions could amount to crimes against humanity if it is established that they were carried out in an organized manner and as part of a state policy," Amnesty International's Iran researcher Raha Bahreini told DW. Raha Bahreini, Amnesty's Iran expert and human rights lawyer Image: Private She warned that the intensity of the recent crackdown has reached unprecedented levels even compared with Iran's previous record and that the risk of further grave human rights violations remains high.
The BriefWire