“Several young people, born in the late 2000s, are sitting next to me. They are under 20. They keep moving their necks up and down and around. I ask them what they are doing. They say: ‘We are preparing our necks for the hangman’s noose.’
This account by photoblogger Sohail Arabi, who has been jailed multiple times since 2013 and was recently released after two months from Ghezel Hesar, one of Iran’s largest prisons, offers a disturbing glimpse of human rights violations in Iran during the current conflict.
Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, the world’s attention has mostly been 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, human rights groups fear a deadly wave of repression due to the ongoing war.
According to rights group Amnesty International, Iran was already set to account for 80% of the global increase in executions through 2025. “During 2025, Iran executed at least 2,159 people, more than double its 2024 figure,” the group said.
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 one of the world’s leading executioners.
According to reports from Iranian opposition groups, at least 40 people have been executed in Iran over political and security-related matters since the war began, while at least 78 others are on death row. In the six weeks to the end of April, Iran recorded an average of one political execution every two days, according to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group that has documented detainees.
possible crimes against humanity
Stories about executions make for grim reading. Gholamreza Khani Shakrab, 34, a former martial arts champion, was accused of working for Israel – he regularly traveled to sports competitions – and was hanged without ever seeing his family again. Kourosh Kivani, a dual Swedish-Iranian citizen, was arrested during the first round of fighting between Israel and Iran in 2025, then executed in March this year.
The woman, Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, 68, was sentenced to death on charges of “armed rebellion”. His first trial lasted only 10 minutes and he had no independent counsel present. Although his verdict was overturned, he was found guilty again after a retrial in late May.
“Documented patterns of killing, torture, enforced disappearances, mass arrests and political executions could constitute crimes against humanity if it is established that these were carried out in an organized manner and as part of state policy,” Raha Bahreni, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher, told DW.
They warned that the intensity of the recent crackdown has reached unprecedented levels compared to Iran’s previous record and there remains the risk of further grave human rights violations.
Amnesty International has also documented practices that amount to torture, including mock executions, mock executions, placing guns in the prisoner’s mouth, severe beatings, suspension by limbs, prolonged solitary confinement, and deprivation of food and medical treatment.
According to Amnesty International, more than 6,000 people have been arrested since the war began.
Those detained include protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, artists, civil society activists, students, teachers, members of ethnic and religious minorities, families seeking justice for victims, and dual citizens.
“Espionage” has been one of the major charges in the recent wave of prosecutions. Observers argue that, as Iran grapples with the political and social consequences of the war, authorities are using the death penalty to raise the costs of dissent and strengthen deterrence.
Several senior figures, including Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ajei, have previously called for speeding up cases involving alleged ties to Israel.
teen on death row
Those executed or sentenced to death in recent political and security-related cases included at least five people aged 18 to 21. In late April, the name of 17-year-old Mateen Mohammadi, arrested for setting fire to a mosque in Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran in January, appeared on a list of those awaiting execution.
“With restrictions on reporting and little monitoring of prisons, concerns about the conditions of prisoners, especially juveniles, are extremely serious,” says Mahmoud Amiri-Moghadam, founder of the Iran Human Rights Organization. “The Iranian authorities, through executions and repression, want to intimidate the generation that has taken to the streets in recent years to such an extent that it will never return to protest.”
Can the execution be stopped?
According to Amnesty Bahrain, there are three legal avenues to hold Iranian officials accountable: “Referral of the situation in Iran to the International Criminal Court by the UN Security Council, prosecuting perpetrators under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the creation of a dedicated international justice mechanism for Iran.”
Bahrain says international governments must now do their best to raise the costs of such human rights violations and argues that the continued silence of many states has contributed to ongoing impunity.
Amiri-Moghadam says that “placing executions and human rights violations at the center of any dialogue and engagement with the Islamic Republic is one of the few ways to rein in Iran’s execution machine.”
He believes that the current war has provided Iran with a “political opportunity”, which has facilitated a sharp increase in executions because it has reduced the political costs of repression. They concluded that if the international community remained inactive, Iran could witness almost daily executions in the coming months.