Iran reportedly put to death six inmates on Saturday, accused by the government of conducting fatal assaults in the nation’s resource-rich southwest region for , an event that underscores a recent escalation in executions which human rights organizations assert are at their highest in decades.
Both The Associated Press and the Iranian news agency Mizan disclosed information regarding these six executions.
Separately, a seventh individual, charged with the 2009 murder of a Sunni cleric among other offenses, was also executed within Kurdistan province.
These executions on Saturday occurred subsequent to the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in June, a confrontation that concluded with Tehran’s pledge to pursue its adversaries both domestically and internationally.
Amnesty International indicates that Iranian authorities have carried out over 1,000 executions by 2025, representing the highest yearly total documented by the organization in at least fifteen years.
Iranian authorities alleged the six individuals with purported ties to Israel were responsible for the deaths of police and security personnel, in addition to planning bomb attacks against locations near Khorramshahr in the turbulent Khuzestan province. State television in Iran broadcast a clip showing one of the men discussing these assaults, stating that this marked the initial public release of such information.
However, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish advocacy group, contended that the six executed were in fact Arab political detainees apprehended during the 2019 demonstrations. Hengaw reported that Iran had implicated them with connections to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, a separatist faction held accountable for pipeline explosions and other violent acts in the area.
This organization maintained that the individuals were subjected to torture and compelled to provide televised confessions under extreme coercion.
The seventh prisoner, identified as Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh, a Kurd, faced conviction for the 2009 assassination of Mamousta Sheikh al-Islam, a Sunni cleric supportive of the government, in Sanandaj, a Kurdish city.
Advocates have raised doubts concerning Khiyareh’s situation, pointing out that he was merely 15 or 16 when the assassination occurred, was arrested at 19, and remained imprisoned for over ten years prior to his execution. They stated his conviction was based on confessions obtained through torture — a method activists frequently allege Iranian courts employ.
State-sponsored executions have surged significantly following President Massoud Pezeshkian’s assumption of power in July 2024. At least in 2024, as per data from the United Nations. President Pezeshkian is answerable to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who possesses the nation’s ultimate authority.
Iran’s rate of executing prisoners has reached levels not witnessed since 1988, a year when the country executed thousands at the conclusion of the
Independent human rights specialists from the U.N. have voiced serious concerns regarding the sheer volume of executions, labeling it “a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law,” as per a recent statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The organization further stated, “With an average exceeding nine hangings daily in recent weeks, Iran seems to be carrying out executions on an industrial scale, which contravenes all recognized norms of human rights safeguarding.”
This report includes contributions from The Associated Press and Reuters.