- Iran resumed and expanded executions of protesters with at least 160 verified executions reported between January and March.
- Human rights groups say many detainees have faced torture, mock executions, starvation, beatings and forced confessions, tactics Iran has used against dissidents for years.
- The overall death toll remains unclear, but officials and human rights groups estimate tens of thousands have died since the January unrest.
Iran is pressing forward with civilian executions, even as attacks against the regime by the United States and Israel intensify.
Violence in the country erupted in early January, when anger against the ruling Islamic theocracy brought Iranians from 190 cities to the streets. Videos of massive crowds dominated social media feeds until Jan. 8, when the country’s internet connection went black.
Reports from international human rights groups slowly emerged through January, claiming Iran had detained tens of thousands of protesters.
After President Donald Trump said mass executions would prompt the U.S. to get involved in the conflict, Iran announced that they’d scrapped their execution plans.
However, 19 days after the U.S. and Israel struck the country, Iran executed three protesters. They were identified as Saleh Mohammadi, 19; Saeed Davoudi, 21; and Mehdi Ghasemi, whose age has not been disclosed. They were charged with “moharebeh” (waging war against God).
What followed the deaths of these three young men is an acceleration of other state-sanctioned executions.
Who has been executed in Iran?
Hengaw, a human rights group, said it has verified the executions of 160 Iranians between Jan. 1 and the end of March; only twelve were officially announced by Iranian state media in the same period.
An additional 400-plus executions have been reported but not verified, per Iran Human Rights.
Most of the executed so far are young men who were either involved in the protests or linked to opposition parties like the MEK, which opposes the Islamic regime.
On March 23, Iran’s Chief of the Judiciary, Hamzeh Khalili, announced that all the legal cases for January’s protesters had been reviewed.
“Some of these cases have resulted in final verdicts and are being carried out, and several have been implemented in recent days, with further information to be announced,” they said.
Last Monday, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, Reza Younesi, wrote on X that his brother was among 22 prisoners “forcibly removed” from Qezel Hesar Prison, located outside of Tehran.
“The families of these prisoners have no information about the condition or whereabouts of their loved ones,” he said. “Today, unlike previous days, Ali (his brother) did not make his usual phone call to my mother.” Then Younesi listed 16 others who had been removed from prison.
Reports emerge of abuse to elicit false confessions
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has come under scrutiny for physical and psychological torture of prisoners for more than a decade.
After protests erupted over the country’s 2009 presidential election, Amnesty International reported on the country’s inhumane treatment of political dissidents. Relatives of detainees were kept in the dark about the status of their loved ones, and prisoners faced mock executions, sexual abuse and beatings.
Iran has continued to use the same tactics in the last four months.
Peyvand Naimi, 30, was arrested on Jan. 8 at his workplace by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. He is accused of celebrating the former supreme leader’s death and being involved in the deaths of security agents during January’s protests.
A close relative of Naimi’s told the Guardian, “My whole body was shaking when I heard about the torture he has endured ... It’s unbelievable. I am very worried.”
Naimi has spent more than a month in solitary confinement, has been subjected to two mock hangings, psychological torture, interrogation, beatings and starvation.
What is the death toll in Iran?
While calculating a death toll in Iran is difficult, senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told Time Magazine that 30,000 people could have been killed by the regime in Iran between Jan. 8-9 alone.
In the war, a human rights group, HRANA, estimates more than 3,500 people have been killed, including 1,616 civilians.
Meanwhile, the United States has lost at least thirteen service members since the war began on Feb. 28.