Iran’s October execution toll hits 20-year high, rights group says

The officers fatally shot two young men, Mohammad-Mehdi Abaei and Alireza Karbasi, on July 1. The shootings took place amid heightened domestic surveillance and arrests following the end of war between Iran and Israel.

A document from Branch One of the Hamedan Military Court obtained by Iran International shows that the court confirmed a previously issued decision to halt legal proceedings against the officers identified as Colonel Behrouz Amid, Colonel Mehdi Ghiyasvand and Major Ali-Asghar Yaghoubi.

The ruling says: “This court, while rejecting the objections, fully confirms the issued non-prosecution order.”

The victims were shot outside Hamedan during what state authorities called a security operation. The IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported that forces opened fire on their vehicle near the Tareek-Darreh area after suspecting it of drone-related activity.

Two of them, Abaei and Karbasi, were killed and a third was injured.

At the time, it was claimed that two Basij members had fired the shots, but the document received by Iran International shows the accused are IRGC officers.

A source close to the victims’ families told Iran International that state media are trying to silence the families and mislead public opinion by framing the victims as “Israeli spies.”

According to this source, security agencies have banned the families from speaking to the media, while state-run outlets attempt to label the two young men as “agents of Israel.”

Lawyers protest ruling

Lawyers for the victims and the injured survivor objected to the ruling, arguing that there had been no traffic restrictions in the area and that the officers violated the law on the use of firearms.

They said the officers fired “a burst of bullets at the vehicle and its passengers without any necessity,” stressing that the act was “inherently lethal”.

They also said that the shooting occurred ten days after the end of the war with Israel, making the claim of wartime conditions invalid.

The prosecutor, however, argued the suspects had acted “voluntarily due to a sense of responsibility to confront Mossad agents and protect public security,” and could have refused the mission.

The court wrote that “due to lack of evidence, firm denial by the accused, and based on the presumption of innocence, the decision not to prosecute is issued.”

During the funeral procession for Abaei and Karbasi on July 3, mourners chanted “Death to the oppressor” and demanded accountability for the killings.

In 2024, at least 484 civilians were shot by security forces in Iran — 163 killed and 321 wounded — according to US-based human rights group HRANA. A five-year review shows a worrying rise in the number of victims of such shootings, with the figure more than doubling compared to the previous five-year period, the rights group said.

Marziya Hosseini lost part of her short-term memory after the stroke and remains hospitalized, they added.

Despite her condition, judicial authorities issued a new summons dated October 26, giving her five days to report to the Qeshm Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office on a Persian Gulf island that was the subject of her investigations.

Charges include "slander, spreading falsehoods, satire and insult to officials and agents."

Hosseini, who has faced prior restrictions from Iran’s security officials, was summoned in June after criticizing President Masoud Pezeshkian's support for Qeshm Free Trade Zone CEO Adel Pighami.

In an X post then, she wrote: "Mr. President, see the result of your support for the corrupt CEO of the Qeshm Free Trade Zone."

She accused Pighami of embezzling public funds and holding back progress at the Qeshm free zone, adding that exposing corruption prompted complaints and threats against her rather than accountability for the issues she rasied.

The Qeshm Free Trade Zone, a key economic hub in southern Iran, has long been plagued by corruption allegations including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) linked monopolies and tax evasion through shell companies.

In 2015, the Iranian government confiscated Qeshm Airlines from its owner Babak Zanjani over bribery charges and unpaid oil debts.

Hosseini's ordeal highlights an intensifying crackdown on press freedom under President Pezeshkian.

A November 2024 report by the watchdog group Defending Free Flow of Information Organization documented 78 judicial and security actions against media outlets and journalists in his first 100 days, marking an uptick in efforts to squelch free media.

“Iranian judicial and security officials directed Kaufman to submit a conditional release request. He was removed from prison and fully released on Thursday,” Ghafouri told Iran International on Friday.

Ghafouri, a veteran investigative journalist who has reported previously on undisclosed developments within Iran's security establishment and who broke the news via a post on X, said Kaufman remained in Iran.

No official Iranian media has reported the release, and the German Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to an Iran International request for comment.

Iranian media reported in June that Kaufman had been arrested on alleged spying charges near restricted nuclear and military sites in Markazi province.

State news agency Mehr released a video they say showed Kaufman, describing him as a Jewish-German dual national tourist cycling through the region, speaking after his arrest.

In the footage, Kaufman says he was aware he was near a military area and that taking photos or videos was not allowed. He adds that he sent his location to a friend. The video is heavily edited and does not include a clear confession.

Iranian officials accuse Kaufman of gathering intelligence on sensitive military sites, including missile silos, drone routes and airbases.

Mehr said he was detained by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence operatives in an area marked with warning signs.

There was "a serious deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran following Israeli airstrikes in June, succeeded by a domestic crackdown that has further constricted civic space, undermined due process, and eroded respect for the right to life," the mission said in a report.

Its release was timed with the publication of similar findings by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato.

The investigators faulted Israel for a June 23 attack on a notorious Iranian prison which authorities say killed "80 people, including prisoners, their family members, staff and at least one child," the report said.

"The Mission’s preliminary investigations indicate that the airstrikes struck civilian buildings in the prison complex," it added, "which do not constitute legitimate military objectives, and that the strikes on these buildings were likely intentional."

Iran's actions following the strike were also criticized, with the report alleging prisoners were transferred to other facilities were beaten and moved at gunpoint, adding that one female detainee reportedly died.

It urged an Iranian investigation on "any violations that may have occurred prior to, during and following the strikes." It said Iran had responded to the mission's request for information on the attacks but Israel had not.

21,000 people detained by authorities in the wake of the conflict include "lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, and people who expressed their views on the conflict on social media," the mission said.

The rise in executions this year in Iran to the highest levels since 2015, it added, "appear to contravene international human rights law, thereby violating the right to life" for which judges could be held to account for crimes against humanity

It rapped Iran for what it called extraterritorial violation of rights by surveilling and intimidating dissidents abroad.

"These patterns appear to form part of a recurring system of repression," it said, "underpinned by systemic impunity."

The report by Mai Sato, dated August 26 and presented to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, covered developments from January to July 2025.

It described a “deeply troubling deterioration” in human rights, citing arbitrary detention, torture, discrimination and other forms of state violence.

Israeli attacks 'violated key principles' of international law

The report said Israeli and US attacks between June 13 and 24 on Iran’s military, nuclear and civilian infrastructure—including Evin Prison in Tehran—killed about 1,100 people, including 102 women and 45 children, and injured more than 5,600.

The report added that non-state sources estimated between 40% and 60% of those killed were civilians.

"Israel attacked over 210 commercial centers, 16 educational centers, 17 energy installations, nearly 10,000 residential units and 23 medical facilities, including hospitals in Kermanshah and Tehran," the report asserted.

"Core tenets of international humanitarian law appear to have been violated, namely, the need to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, ensure the proportionality of military actions and minimize foreseeable harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure," Sato wrote.

Israeli assassinations of 14 nuclear scientists she described as "unlawful killing."

Attacks by Israel and the United States which both powers lauded as key setbacks for their Mideast adversary and a boon to international security she condemned.

"The Special Rapporteur underscores that armed attacks on nuclear facilities must never occur, as they could release radioactive material with catastrophic humanitarian and ecological impacts."

The attacks prompted Iran’s parliament to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and introduce laws expanding espionage offences and limiting the work of journalists and civil groups.

'Alarming' rise in Iran executions

Sato said Iran’s use of the death penalty reached “alarming” levels, averaging three to four executions a day.

More than 700 people were executed during the reporting period, including at least 98 Baloch, 42 Kurds, and 8 Arabs, along with a rise in executions of Afghan nationals.

Half of the executions were for drug-related offences, followed by homicide and “security-related” charges, including espionage for Israel.

Sato said executions were carried out amid “procedural violations” and that the authorities had made public only 8% of the total cases, leaving most unacknowledged.

Torture, amputations and prison abuse

The report detailed accounts of torture, sexual violence and the denial of medical care in detention. It cited the amputation of four fingers each from three men convicted on theft charges — Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharafian and Mehdi Shahivand — at Urmia Central Prison in July as “state-sanctioned mutilation.”

Following Israeli strikes on Evin prison on June 23, which killed about 80 people, prisoners were transferred to overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, the report said, adding that the whereabouts of several detainees remained unknown.

Crackdown on media and activists

Sato said authorities had detained over 21,000 people during the June escalation, amid what she described as a “massive clampdown on civic space.”

The judiciary also sent text warnings threatening prosecution for citizens who engaged with what it called “Zionist regime pages” on social media.

The report said journalists working for Iran International and BBC Persian continued to face death threats and harassment of their families inside Iran.

Kurdish rights group Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the report added, was repeatedly targeted with "smear campaigns, threats, false legal accusations, attempted abduction and death threats".

Minorities and deportations

The report highlighted systemic discrimination against the Baha’i, Kurdish, Baluch, and Arab ethnic minorities as well as Afghan refugees, including arbitrary arrests and the mass deportation of over 1.5 million Afghans during the first half of the year.

It said the revival of the mandatory hijab enforcement law and new surveillance powers further restricted freedoms, while lawyers, activists and women’s rights defenders faced imprisonment and unfair trials.

Lethal violence beyond war

Sato said Iran’s human rights violations go far beyond the June conflict, forming what she described as a years-old “broader pattern of lethal violence”.

She cited as evidence extrajudicial killings along Iran’s borders, deaths in custody, a culture of impunity for state violence and laws that permit gender-based abuse.

“Violations of the right to life are manifested in multiple forms,” the report said, adding that between 11 and 17 Kurdish border couriers, known as Kulbars, were killed and up to 22 injured during the reporting period.

At least 71 fuel porters or sukhtbars were also killed and 54 wounded in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran's Southeast. Landmine explosions killed continued to take lives among both vulnerable border communities, it added.

'No relief'

Sato urged Iran to repeal laws criminalizing peaceful expression, end the use of torture and forced confessions, and investigate deaths in custody and border killings.

Foreign governments, she said, must protect Iranian exiles, human rights defenders and journalists from cross-border harassment and support civil society groups documenting abuses.

“Post-conflict periods present critical opportunities for national unity and healing,” Sato said. “Yet in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the end of fighting has not brought relief for the people.”