The Hill – Iran has executed at least 21 people since start of war: UN human rights chief
The Iranian government has executed at least 21 people since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against the country, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Wednesday.
In a press release, Türk’s office said that since the conflict began on Feb. 28, the Islamic Republic regime has executed at least nine people in connection with anti-government protests in January. The regime has also executed 10 people for alleged membership in opposition groups and two on espionage charges.
“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,” Türk said in the release.
“In times of war, threats to human rights increase exponentially,” he added. “Yet even where national security is invoked, human rights can only be limited where strictly necessary and proportionate, and for a legitimate end. And core, non-derogable rights — such as protection against arbitrary detention, and the right to fair trial — must be respected absolutely, at all times.”
Türk’s office noted that since the war started, Iranian forces have arrested more than 4,000 individuals on national security related charges. Many of those detainees, the office stated, have been “forcibly disappeared, tortured, or subjected to other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including coerced — and sometimes televised — confessions and mock executions.”
Among those detainees are those from ethnic and religious minority groups — including Bahá’ís, Zoroastrians, Kurds, and Baluch Iranians — who have been at “particular risk” during the crackdown.
“I call on the authorities to halt all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained,” Türk said.
The January protests against the regime were met with an “unprecedented crackdown” by Iranian forces, according to Amnesty International.
The U.K.-based human rights organization said that month that Iranian authorities cut all internet access to “conceal their crimes,” while security forces “used unlawful force, firearms and other prohibited weapons” against protesters.
During the first 50 days of the demonstrations, nearly 6,500 protesters, 236 children, 76 civilians who were not protesting and 207 military and government forces were killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
As for the U.S.-Israeli strikes, more than 1,700 civilians in Iran — including at least 254 children — had been killed since the war started, HRANA reported on April 7. That day, President Trump and the Iranian government agreed to a pause in hostilities.
The pause is ongoing, but negotiations between the Trump administration and Iranian officials on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program have largely stalled.
Early Wednesday morning, the president warned the Iranian regime that it “better get smart soon” in a post on Truth Social along with an AI-generated image of himself, donning sunglasses and carrying a machine gun, with explosions going off in the background.
The caption of the image reads, “No More Mr. Nice Guy!”
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