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U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday accused Iran’s regime of dramatically intensifying its crackdown on dissent within the wake of the February battle, warning that Tehran has carried out executions, mass arrests, torture and one of many world’s longest web shutdowns whereas invoking nationwide safety.
In a sharply worded assertion from Geneva, Türk mentioned at the very least 21 folks have been executed and greater than 4,000 arrested on nationwide security-related expenses since Feb. 28, because the regime faces mounting scrutiny over what he described as a sweeping assault on elementary rights.
“I’m appalled that, on prime of the already extreme impacts of the battle, the rights of the Iranian folks proceed to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal methods,” Türk mentioned.
A protester holds ‘Cease executions in Iran’ and ‘Free Iran’ placards throughout the demonstration. Demonstrators gathered exterior Downing Road in protest towards executions in Iran and in assist of freedom for Iran. (Vuk Valcic/SOPA Photographs/LightRocket through Getty Photographs)
For the reason that begin of the battle two months in the past, the U.N. mentioned 9 folks have been executed in reference to the January 2026 protests, 10 for alleged membership in opposition teams, and two on espionage expenses. It is estimated that some 40,000 folks had been killed by regime forces throughout January’s rebellion.
Türk warned that Iran’s broad use of vaguely outlined nationwide safety legal guidelines has enabled authorities to fast-track prosecutions, deny legal counsel, and depend on coerced confessions.
“Even the place nationwide safety is invoked, human rights can solely be restricted the place strictly essential and proportionate,” he mentioned, calling on Tehran to halt executions, impose a moratorium on capital punishment, and instantly launch these arbitrarily detained.
For a lot of Iranian dissidents, the findings replicate an already dire actuality.
A billboard depicting Iran’s supreme leaders since 1979: (L to R) Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini (till 1989), Ali Khamenei (till 2026), and Mojtaba Khamenei (incumbent) is displayed above a freeway in Tehran on March 10, 2026. Iran marked the appointment of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to switch his father as its supreme chief on March 9, 2026. (AFP/Through Getty Photographs)
“It’s unhealthy,” Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist and editor of the Iran So Far Away Substack, advised Fox Information Digital. “They’re fully killing off the country.”
On Saturday, it was reported that Iran had executed one other athlete, a 21-year-old karate champion. Sassan Azadvar Joonqani was detained in January throughout the anti-regime protests and was executed by the regime on Thursday, based on a report in Euronews.
Wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi was executed by the regime in March for alleged unlawful actions in January’s protests towards the authorities. (The International Desk)
Final month, Iran executed one other athlete, 19-year-old wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi, for protesting towards the regime, Fox Information Digital reported.
Türk’s workplace mentioned detainees have reportedly confronted enforced disappearances, torture, mock executions, and televised confessions, with ethnic and spiritual minorities together with Bahá’ís, Zoroastrians, Kurds and Baluch Iranians going through explicit threat.
Ali and Kiana Rahmani settle for the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 on behalf of their mom, imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, at Oslo Metropolis Corridor in Norway on Dec. 10, 2023. (Javad Parsa/NTB/Reuters)
Amongst these cited by the U.N. was imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, whose situation sharply worsened Friday after what her household described as a catastrophic well being disaster following months of being denied specialised care.
Based on a press release from the Narges Basis that was revealed Friday, Mohammadi was urgently transferred by ambulance from Zanjan Jail to a hospital after struggling two episodes of full lack of consciousness in a single day, accompanied by extreme cardiac misery. The muse mentioned jail medical doctors decided her situation may now not be managed on-site after what her household known as a “last-minute” switch that will have come dangerously late.
Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, advised Fox Information Digital earlier this week that her bodily situation had already turn into more and more dire after what he described as a violent arrest and deteriorating jail remedy. “She has sustained extreme trauma and urgently requires medical consideration.”
Rahmani beforehand mentioned Mohammadi’s medical crew and outdoors specialists had pushed for remedy in Tehran as a result of her history of a number of coronary heart procedures, whereas authorities allegedly blocked these suggestions till her situation grew to become life-threatening. Regardless of her bodily decline, Rahmani mentioned, “Spiritually and mentally, Narges stays steadfast.”
IRAN’S KHAMENEI LASHES OUT AT PROTESTERS AS NATIONWIDE ANTI-REGIME UNREST GROWS
On this photograph obtained by The Related Press, tear fuel is fired throughout an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC through AP) (UGC through AP)
The U.N. assertion, mixed with Mohammadi’s emergency hospitalization, has intensified scrutiny of Iran’s jail circumstances, which Türk described as marked by overcrowding, medical neglect, and extreme human rights abuses.
Türk additionally cited dire prison conditions, together with overcrowding, shortages of meals, water and drugs, and denial of medical care.
The U.N. additional highlighted reviews of deadly violence in detention services, together with claims that safety forces killed at the very least 5 detainees in Chabahar Jail after protests over suspended meals distribution.
However whereas dissidents welcomed the U.N.’s unusually forceful language, some additionally questioned whether or not condemnation without action can meaningfully alter circumstances, particularly as Iran this week was elevated to a vice-chair function on a U.N. nuclear nonproliferation committee.
“The explanation why Iranians simply do not belief, don’t love and do not wish to know from the U.N.,” Zand mentioned, is what she described as its repeated failure “to rise to the event of responding to the regime and holding their ft to the hearth on the proper time… with the correct amount of strain.”
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Iranian diaspora activists gathered in entrance of the German Federal International Workplace in Berlin on Jan. 27, 2024, to protest the rise in loss of life sentences by Iran’s Islamic Republic rulers. The demonstration was organized by the Echo Iran group. (Echo Iran/Center East Photographs/AFP)
Whereas she mentioned the most recent assertion itself was essential, Zand argued many view such condemnations as hole when paired with what they see as institutional legitimacy granted to Tehran.
“They’re making a press release… advantageous,” she mentioned. “However what are they gonna do about it?”
