ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities have carried out the death penalty against more than two dozen individuals “on politically motivated charges” over the past few weeks alone, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported, urging United Nations member states to take “coordinated diplomatic action” to pressure Tehran to halt executions and hold accountable officials linked to rights violations.
“Since March 18, 2026, Iranian authorities have executed at least 28 people on politically motivated charges,” Bahar Saba, Senior Iran Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a Thursday video message on X, adding that among those executed was “19-year-old wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi and at least 12 other young men linked to [pro-reform] protests.”
Saba said the executions followed “trials that violate the basic rights of defendants and use confessions extracted under torture to obtain convictions,” warning that “scores of imprisoned protesters and dissidents remain at risk of arbitrary and secret executions.”
She added that Iranian authorities “have been increasingly using the death penalty to spread fear,” pointing out that in 2025 “over 2,000 people were executed,” the highest number of known executions in Iran since the late 1980s.
“UN member states should take coordinated diplomatic action to press Iran's authorities to halt all executions. Iranian officials responsible for violating the right to life and fair trials should be held to account,” Saba urged.
The US and Israel in late February launched a wide-scale aerial campaign against Iran that lasted six weeks, before the warring sides agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8.
The UN human rights office reported in late April that since the outbreak of the war, Iranian authorities have intensified the use of the death penalty, with many executions linked to “connection with the January 2026 protests,” as well as “alleged membership in opposition groups,” and “espionage charges.”
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, then said he was “appalled” by the surge in executions in Iran, while also censuring Iranian authorities over the arrest of some 4,000 people during the same period.
“I am appalled that - on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict - the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities in harsh and brutal ways,” he said, affirming that even in times of war, “core, non-derogable rights - such as protection against arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial - must be respected absolutely at all times.”
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