The UN has warned that the Tehran regime has executed 21 people and detained over 4,000 others since the start of the war, accusing the Islamic Republic of torture, disappearances and targeting of minorities.
Tehran has executed at least 21 people and detained more than 4,000 since the start of the Iran war, the UN Human Rights Office said on Wednesday.
In a statement from Geneva, the office said at least nine of those executed were linked to the January protests, 10 were killed for suspected membership in opposition or hostile groups and two were sentenced to death on espionage charges.
All executions were carried out after the start of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28.
“I am shocked and alarmed,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The Iranian authorities continue to severely restrict people’s rights.”
Türk called on Tehran to halt executions, release arbitrarily detained prisoners and stop implementing the death penalty.
The office said more than 4,000 people had been detained on charges of violating national security since March 9.
According to the UN, many of those held have been disappeared, tortured or subjected to mock executions. Ethnic and religious minorities are disproportionately affected.
The UN said the Iranian judicial system has accelerated convictions and sentences since the start of the war, citing wartime conditions.
Iranian courts have also taken action to seize the assets of citizens suspected of collaborating with hostile states or opposing the war, with reports of property seizures targeting public figures and Iranians living abroad.
US President Donald Trump said that after the crackdown on protesters in January — in which thousands were killed — he had convinced the Iranian government to stop the execution of about 800 dissidents. Tehran denied this.
Trump later said Iran had stopped the execution of eight women, a claim the Islamic Republic also denied.
