Reports: Iran uses war as cover for increased executions
"Several young men born in the second half of the 2000s are sitting beside me. They are under 20. They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side. I ask them what they are doing. They say: 'We are preparing our necks for the hangman's noose'." This account by Sohe
"Several young men born in the second half of the 2000s are sitting beside me. They are under 20. They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side. I ask them what they are doing. They say: 'We are preparing our necks for the hangman's noose'."
This account by Soheil Arabi, a photoblogger who has been jailed several times since 2013 and who was recently released from one of Iran's largest prisons, Ghezel Hesar, after two months, offers a disturbing glimpse into human rights violations in Iran during the current conflict.
Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, the world has been mostly focused on the war, Iran 's nuclear program, the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the future balance of power in the Middle East.
But inside the country, rights groups fear an increasingly deadly wave of repression , thanks to the ongoing war.
Iran already accounted for 80% of a global surge in executions during 2025, according to rights group Amnesty International. During 2025, "Iran executed at least 2,159 people, more than double its 2024 figure," the group said.
For nearly half a century, the Iranian government has used the death penalty as a tool to suppress any political opposition. In recent years, Iran has been among the world's leading executioners.
According to reports from Iranian opposition groups, at least 40 people have been executed in political and security-related cases since the Iran war began, while at least 78 others remain on death row. According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group that has documented detentions, in the six weeks up to the end of April, Iran recorded an average of one political execution every two days.
The stories about executions make for grim reading. Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, 34, a former martial arts champion, was accused of working for Israel – he regularly travelled for sports contests – and he was hanged without ever getting to see his family again. Dual Swedish-Iranian national Kourosh Keyvani was arrested in 2025, during the first round of fighting between Israel and Iran, then hanged in March this year.
