Schlagwort: Amnesty International

Ethiopian authorities have intensified their crackdown on press freedom in a cynical attempt to silence criticism in the lead-up to the country’s national election on 1 June, Amnesty International said today.

In recent months, Ethiopian authorities have launched a campaign of repression against independent media by arbitrarily arresting, forcibly disappearing and unlawfully surveilling journalists. Other journalists have had their accreditation  revoked, while several media houses have lost their licenses arbitrarily.

“Ethiopian authorities should reverse these increasingly authoritarian tendencies and immediately end this campaign of repression against the media. Ethiopia’s development partners and relevant regional and international human rights bodies must also speak out against the systematic dismantling of the country’s independent media as citizens prepare to vote”, said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

Ethiopian authorities should reverse these increasingly authoritarian tendencies and immediately end this campaign of repression against the media.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

Six media representatives interviewed by Amnesty International, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals, reported that their coverage of the upcoming election has been severely affected by ongoing hostility against the media.

They said that journalists frequently self-censor to avoid reprisals by authorities. Two of them noted that their already limited pre-election coverage has been further hampered by a lack of transparency from the election board. Another told Amnesty International that almost all opposition politicians now fear speaking to the media.

“I had to drop a story because every quoted politician was anonymous, as they refused to disclose their identity for fear of reprisals for criticizing the government or the ruling party,” said one news editor interviewed by Amnesty International.

“Most politicians are always reluctant to talk to us about anything critical of the government over the phone. They fear that their devices are compromised by the intelligence services,” said another journalist.

Several of the interviewees also told Amnesty International that the election board has imposed an “oath”, first introduced in 2021, as a precondition for official accreditation to cover the election.

I had to drop a story because every quoted politician was anonymous, as they refused to disclose their identity for fear of reprisals for criticizing the government or the ruling party.

Journalist, Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Election Board is an independent constitutional body established to conduct elections across Ethiopia’s federal and state constituencies.

This oath, which Amnesty International has reviewed, requires media organizations to comply with “ethical responsibilities and obligations set out in the directives for covering elections” and to acknowledge that it is against the law to publish “false information about the Board”.

The restrictions outlined in the oath contain words that can be broadly interpreted.

“Press freedom and the free flow of information are vital during elections. The oath required by the election board is clearly a tool for controlling what is discussed in public about the upcoming election and gives it the power to censor uncomfortable information or determine what is considered to be true or false,” said Tigere Chagutah.

A smear campaign against the media that frames independent journalism as a national threat, just weeks before the election, is an example of how authoritarian tendencies are taking root in Ethiopia and are being deployed to consolidate power

Tigere Chagutah

In recent months, public statements by top government officials have framed critical and independent reporting as threats to national interests, a pretext that has been used to justify the ongoing crackdown on media freedom. Just two months ahead of the election  Redwan Hussien, Ethiopia’s intelligence chief, and the prime minister’s advisor, Daniel Kibret, made this kind of statements, which have been echoed by officials from the country’s media regulatory body, the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA). Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also frequently used rhetoric that frames the free press as a threat to national interests.

“A smear campaign against the media that frames independent journalism as a national threat, just weeks before the election, is an example of how authoritarian tendencies are taking root in Ethiopia and are being deployed to consolidate power”, said Tigere Chagutah.

Background

Over the past year Ethiopian’s media regulatory body, EMA, has arbitrarily suspended the registration of Addis Standard and Wazema Radio, while revoking the accreditation and licenses of Reuters journalists. The revocation of accreditation for the Reuters journalists was linked to the outlet’s coverage of a military base inside Ethiopia hosting the Sudanese armed group, the Rapid Support Forces.

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Following the United Nations Security Council’s decision to renew the arms embargo on South Sudan for another year, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah said:

“The renewal of the arms embargo, if it is diligently enforced, is an important measure to protect civilians by curtailing the flow of weapons that have been used to commit serious human rights violations and crimes under international law.

“We are however dismayed that several Security Council members continue to call for the lifting of the arms embargo and some members abstained from the vote, especially with the escalating intensity of the armed conflict since early 2025.

The renewal of the arms embargo, if it is diligently enforced, is an important measure to protect civilians by curtailing the flow of weapons that have been used to commit serious human rights violations and crimes under international law.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

“Weapons continue to be used to take lives. For instance, on 1 March 2026, a group of armed men from Mayom County in Unity State stormed Abiemnom town, killing and injuring hundreds of people in only a few hours. Placing more weapons in the hands of warring parties and other actors involved in serious human rights violations and crimes under international law would be irresponsible and dangerous to civilians.

“Weapons have also been used to commit sexual violence that still continues to characterize the armed conflict in South Sudan despite the existence of agreements and an action plan to combat and address its prevalence. Crimes under international and national law, including conflict-related sexual violence, continue to be rewarded with impunity.”

Background

In 2025, Amnesty International found that the deployment of armed Ugandan soldiers and military equipment to South Sudan since 11 March 2025, in absence of a notification or exemption request to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee, flagrantly violates the arms embargo. Amnesty International also documented evidence of the ongoing use of attack helicopters by the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF), strongly suggesting that the supply of spare parts – an arms embargo violation previously documented by Amnesty International – continues.

In 2020, Amnesty International documented evidence of newly imported small arms and ammunition, illicit concealment of weapons and diversion of armoured vehicles for unauthorized military purposes, pointing to the failure of the parties to the 2018 peace agreement, including the South Sudanese government, to adhere to the UN embargo, and to implement relevant provisions of the 2018 peace agreement under which they also committed to protect human rights.

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In response to the statement issued by Nicaraguan authorities regarding the critical health condition of Indigenous leader and prisoner of conscience Brooklyn Rivera, César Marín, Americas Campaigns Director at Amnesty International, said:

“Brooklyn Rivera must be released immediately and unconditionally. His critical health condition while in the custody of the Nicaraguan state confirms the extreme risk to which he has been exposed after more than two years of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, incommunicado detention, and lack of regular access to his family, trusted legal counsel and independent oversight.”

Brooklyn Rivera must be released immediately and unconditionally. His critical health condition while in the custody of the Nicaraguan state confirms the extreme risk to which he has been exposed after more than two years of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, incommunicado detention, and lack of regular access to his family, trusted legal counsel and independent oversight.

César Marín, Americas Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has repeatedly warned that the conditions in which Brooklyn Rivera has been held could seriously endanger his life and personal integrity. Today, those warnings have materialized into a situation of extreme urgency that the government can no longer hide.

“While Brooklyn Rivera remains deprived of his liberty, Nicaraguan authorities must immediately guarantee regular access to his family and end his incommunicado detention. They must also ensure that he receives all the medical care he requires, allow an independent medical evaluation, and facilitate oversight by international protection mechanisms. The international community must act urgently and press the Nicaraguan state to secure his release and, immediately, to protect his life and personal integrity.”

The international community must act urgently and press the Nicaraguan state to secure his release and, immediately, to protect his life and personal integrity.”

César Marín, Americas Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

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The U.S. Congress and the international community must take immediate action to stop the U.S. military’s unconscionable campaign of extrajudicial killings at sea and push for accountability, as the death toll nears 200.

Since September 2025, the U.S. Southern Command has carried out nearly 60 air strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 196 people so far. These actions, committed against people who pose no imminent threat to life, are extrajudicial killings, a form of murder, and amount to crimes under international law.

“With nearly 200 killings, these extrajudicial killings are becoming normalized,” said Amnesty International USA’s National Director for Government Relations, Amanda Klasing. “Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral. People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”

Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral. People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”

Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA’s National Director for Government Relations.

The first extrajudicial killings of the campaign took place on September 2, 2025, with an air strike against a boat in the Caribbean that killed at least 11 people in what remains the deadliest single strike yet.

Since then, the U.S. has expanded its bombings to the Eastern Pacific, conducting an average of six strikes per month across both regions. The deadliest month was October 2025, with 45 people killed in 11 air strikes, including 15 people killed in three air strikes on October 27, the deadliest single day of the campaign. Already this year, the U.S. military has killed over 70 people, including at least nine in the last month.

“Numbers alone cannot capture the unimaginable human toll of this horrific campaign of murder at sea. Every single person that the U.S. has killed at sea was arbitrarily deprived of their right to life, and they and their families have a right to justice. Lawmakers must do everything in their power to halt this campaign and hold everyone responsible accountable for their role in these extrajudicial killings,” said Amanda Klasing.

The administration’s justifications for these air strikes have been shambolic. White House officials have claimed, without presenting any evidence or even naming a single victim, that the targets are drug traffickers or “narco-terrorists” with whom the U.S. is at war. But the U.S. is not engaged in any armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere which might justify these bombings, and the administration has yet to even say who the supposed “narco-terrorist” groups are. When Virginia Senator Tim Kaine questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in an April Senate hearing about the utter lack of information about who the U.S. military is killing, Hegseth merely referenced that the targets had affiliations with unspecified “designated terrorist organizations,” but did not indicate that the U.S. actually knows the identities of its victims.

U.S. authorities have chosen not to prosecute any air strike survivors either, suggesting that, should claims of trafficking be true, they do not have enough evidence to win a case against them, and have instead released people captured alive without charge. When Congressman Bill Keating raised concerns to Secretary Hegseth in a House Armed Services Committee hearing about the unlawfulness of the strikes and alleged U.S. interdictions, Hegseth simply dismissed the questions as “false accusations.”

“We are witnessing the height of lawlessness — a government taking military action to kill people who it unilaterally deems ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ and then bragging about it on social media and stonewalling members of Congress demanding explanations. Regardless of whether the victims committed crimes or not, killing them is completely illegal under both U.S. and international law. Alleged criminal suspects should be dealt with by law enforcement who are bound by international human rights law, which prohibits using lethal force unless absolutely necessary based on an imminent threat to life,” said Amanda Klasing.

These air strikes take place amid a military buildup in the Western Hemisphere unprecedented in recent history. Secretary Hegseth’s geopolitical frame of a “Greater North America” encompassing all sovereign countries and territories north of the equator within an “immediate security perimeter,” alongside messages from the White House to leaders in the region to ignore international human rights law, raises serious concerns about the actions the administration is willing to take in the region.

“We call on Congress to urgently utilize all legislative and oversight mechanisms available to stop these air strikes and stop enabling and promoting the militarization of public security in the Americas, which can only lead to greater human rights violations such as the ones documented in Mexico and Ecuador. U.S. military actions in the Americas and anywhere, no matter the purported goal, cannot come at the expense of human rights,” said Daniel Noroña, Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Director for the Americas.

We call on Congress to urgently utilize all legislative and oversight mechanisms available to stop these air strikes and stop enabling and promoting the militarization of public security in the Americas,  U.S. military actions, cannot come at the expense of human rights,” 

Daniel Noroña, Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Director for the Americas.

Amnesty International is also calling for the international community to hold the U.S. government accountable.

“Beyond U.S. authorities, we need to see leadership from other governments in the region, as well as the Organization of American States,” said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International. “The international community must speak out firmly against these murders, which constitute a serious threat to human rights and respect for international law. Governments must immediately suspend intelligence sharing that may contribute to these operations. They further should suspend export licenses to any defense material that could be used to perpetuate these murders.”

The international community must speak out firmly against these murders, which constitute a serious threat to human rights and respect for international law. Governments must immediately suspend intelligence sharing that may contribute to these operations. ”

Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

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Iranian authorities are using the cover of what they call “wartime conditions” to intensify their repression of dissent through mass arbitrary arrests, accelerated grossly unfair judicial proceedings, politically motivated executions, harsh prison sentences, and asset confiscations, Amnesty International said today.

Since the unlawful military attack launched by the USA and Israel against Iran on 28 February 2026, Iranian authorities have arbitrarily arrested more than 6,000 people, including protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, dissidents, and members of ethnic and religious minorities. Senior judicial officials have ordered expedited prosecutions against those arrested, including on capital charges, amid widespread concerns of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, and the use of forced “confessions” in grossly unfair sham trials. During the same period, authorities have imposed decades-long prison sentences against individuals and carried out at least 39 political executions.

Authorities systematically isolated more than 90 million people through an internet shutdown, violating their right to freedom of information, through the longest and most suffocating internet shutdown on record lasting 88 days, while criminalizing online activity as “espionage,” which is punishable by death. The internet was restored, with restrictions, on 26 May 2026.

“Iranian authorities are exploiting the crisis to further erode the human rights of people in Iran who are already suffering from the devastating consequences of unlawful air strikes by US and Israeli forces, as well as decades of crimes under international law at the hands of the Islamic Republic,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director of Research, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Amnesty International.

“To maintain their grip on power, the authorities have unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran, targeting anyone who dares to criticize the Islamic Republic, share information about the US or Israeli air strikes or human rights violations with the outside world, or simply attempt to break through what became the longest recorded internet shutdown to communicate with loved ones or access independent information.

“Iranian authorities must lift all remaining restrictions on internet access and stop imposing internet shutdowns on Iran’s population. They must release anyone arbitrarily detained, protect all detainees from torture and other ill-treatment, disclose the fate and whereabouts of those subjected to enforced disappearance, and immediately halt all executions, with a view to establishing an official moratorium on the death penalty.”

Authorities have also openly threatened to commit further mass killings of anyone expressing dissent or advocating for the downfall of the Islamic Republic system and vilified critics as “traitors” and “enemy collaborators”.

The internet blackout imposed by the authorities since 28 February 2026 severely obstructed in-depth documentation of human rights violations. For this press release, Amnesty International spoke to 10 informed sources outside Iran, including victims’ relatives, human rights defenders and journalists with information about violations. The organization also analysed videos published online, reviewed official text messages sent by the authorities, examined official statements and state media reports, and reviewed reports from independent media and human rights organizations based outside Iran.

Internet use criminalized

The sweeping repression has taken place amid an unprecedented nationwide shutdown of access to the global internet, which lasted for 88 days.

On 25 May 2026, President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology to restore global internet access. Internet access began to be restored the next day, amid reports of ongoing restrictions, including in accessing social media applications and filtering in place. It remains unclear whether internet connectivity will be sustained, amid conflicting announcements by official bodies, including the judiciary’s media centre, appearing to question the legality of the presidential order restoring the internet. Concerns also remain over censorship, surveillance and the prosecution of individuals seeking to circumvent restrictions through the use of VPNs.

The internet blackout functioned as a central pillar of the authorities’ repression strategy, creating conditions in which widespread crimes under international law can be carried out with impunity.

A discriminatory system of tiered internet access was introduced by the authorities allowing only a small number of pre-approved users, including those linked to state institutions and some approved professional sectors, to access less restricted global internet through “Internet Pro” services while denying the wider population access to the internet and connection to each other and the outside world. Given that access through Internet Pro was tied to users’ registered SIM cards and identity verification systems, many people expressed concerns that it was not secure from state monitoring.

The authorities have actively criminalized efforts by the public to access the internet.  

To maintain their grip on power, the authorities have unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International

Iran’s police force, known by its acronym FARAJA, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) issued direct warnings to the public via text messages, framing ordinary online activity as a matter of national security and threatening those accessing the global internet through VPNs or satellite connections with arrest, prosecution, asset seizures, and other punishments under the Espionage Law, which provides for the death penalty.

Text messages reviewed by Amnesty International indicate that the authorities have sent coercive messages to individuals, identified through their digital activity, who circumvent internet restrictions. These messages explicitly accused recipients of committing criminal offences, referencing IP addresses, VPN or satellite internet use. They threatened measures including blocking cell phone services and SIM cards, and referral to judicial authorities, while warning that any alleged link to “hostile states” or the “Zionist regime” would result in prosecution under the Espionage Law.

One such message sent by FARAJA, reviewed by Amnesty International, warned the individual that their line will be blocked if they continue to access the internet. Two messages to other individuals warned that their “unauthorized” and “unlawful” use of the internet through VPNs and proxies “is a crime” and that all their communication services will be blocked. All three messages threatened referral to the judicial authorities which would entail criminal prosecutions risking heavy prison sentences or the death penalty.

Amnesty International reviewed a further eight text messages sent by the authorities warning that photographing areas damaged in air strikes and sharing such content with media or online platforms are deemed as “collaborating with the enemy” will incur legal consequences. The messages also instructed people to inform on one another in the case of “suspicious activity”.

The authorities have framed the use of alternative internet technologies that seek to circumvent the internet shutdown, particularly Starlink satellite systems, as a form of espionage or “collaboration with hostile states”. In a statement on 17 March 2026, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that “hundreds” of Starlink devices had been seized and warned that acquiring or using such systems is a criminal offence punishable by death.

The prolonged internet shutdown had devastated livelihoods across Iran, collapsing small businesses and wiping out income for millions of people who are dependent on digital connectivity, according to state-affiliated media inside Iran.

Mass arbitrary arrests, prosecutions and asset freezes

The authorities have arbitrarily arrested thousands of people, including children, across the country under the pretext of national security, including for peaceful acts protected under international human rights law.

On 17 May 2026 Iran’s police chief, Ahmadreza Radan, announced that more than 6,500 “traitors and spies” have been arrested since 28 February 2026. Mass arrests have taken place in provinces across the country, according to Iranian officials and state media, including Alborz, Ardebil, Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamedan, Ilam, Kerman, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, North Khorasan, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Tehran, West Azerbaijan, and Yazd.

Officials and state media have systematically vilified those arrested, labelling them as “traitors”, “terrorists,” “mercenaries,” “counterrevolutionary groups,” “agents of foreign powers” and “enemy collaborators.

Accusations against those detained, as announced by the authorities and reported on state media, include alleged collaboration with Israel and/or the US; possessing, selling or using Starlink equipment; sharing content about the conflict on social media; expressing views supportive of air strikes against the Islamic Republic and/or welcoming the death of senior officials; sending images of sites hit by Israeli-US air strikes to “hostile” media including Persian-language media outside Iran; spreading false news and rumours in order to disturb public opinion; writing slogans in public places; cooperating with “terrorist” media outlets; “insulting the independence and freedom of Iran and Islamic sanctities”; and “carrying out propaganda activities against the country, the flag, and national and religious symbols.”

Official statements, information gathered by Amnesty International from victims’ families and human rights defenders, as well as reports from media and human rights organizations outside Iran, indicate that the authorities have also exploited the cover of war to further crush civil society. Authorities have  arbitrarily arrested, threatened and/or summoned hundreds of protesters; human rights defenders; lawyers; journalists and other media workers; civil society activists; labour rights’ activists; students; teachers; justice-seeking families of protesters and bystanders unlawfully killed or arbitrarily executed; ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds; and religious minorities, including Baha’is and Christians.

The international community must not allow the Iranian authorities to use the conflict as a smokescreen to deepen their machinery of repression and carry out crimes under international law with impunity.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International

Lawyers representing individuals charged in politically motivated cases are among those targeted. For instance, according to human rights groups, the office of the prosecutor in Tehran summoned both Amir Raisian and Milad Panahipour on 29 April 2026 and charged them with “spreading lies” and “spreading propaganda against the system” for publicly raising due process concerns in the case of their client, Ehsan Hosseinipour Hesarloo, 18, who is at risk of execution in relation to the January 2026 protests.

As part of the crackdown on dissent, judicial authorities have also issued sweeping orders to identify, freeze and seize assets, including bank accounts, properties and other financial holdings, targeting individuals accused of cooperating with “enemy states” or “hostile media.”

In March 2026, the judiciary announced the deployment of a digital system called “Saham” to enable the rapid identification and seizure of assets of people it called “terrorist and mercenary agents affiliated with the Zionist enemy and other hostile countries.” Since then, the authorities have announced the seizure of the assets of more than 750 people whom they refer to as “traitors” and “enemy agents” living inside and outside Iran, including journalists in the diaspora.

Enforced disappearances, torture and forced ‘confessions’

The authorities have subjected individuals detained to incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, coerced “confessions” and denial of access to a lawyer.

Among those subjected to enforced disappearance was prominent lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh who was arbitrarily arrested in Tehran on 1 April 2026 and disappeared for around six weeks. According to an informed source, authorities denied the family any information about Nasrin Sotoudeh’s fate and whereabouts following her arrest. She was released on bail on 13 May 2026.

Two other human rights lawyers, Astareh (Maryam) Ansari and Elham Zera’atpisheh, have also been subjected to enforced disappearance since their arrests in Fars province on 3 and 4 May 2026, respectively.

Journalist and human rights defender, Mary Mohammadi, a Christian convert, has been subjected to enforced disappearance since late February 2026. According to an informed source, she had travelled from Tehran to Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and was in contact with her family until around 26 February 2026 before communication ceased. The authorities have refused to disclose her fate or whereabouts to her family but, according to information gathered by Amnesty International, she was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Ahvaz before being transferred to an undisclosed location on 2 April 2026.

In another case documented by Amnesty International, the authorities subjected the sibling of a human rights defender and media worker based abroad to enforced disappearance for several weeks to pressure the individual to cease reporting on human rights violations in Iran.

Amnesty International fears that these and other detainees are at grave risk, particularly amid reports of torture and other ill-treatment in detention and deaths in custody in suspicious circumstances.

Amnesty International has documented torture and other ill-treatment against detainees since 28 February 2026, including mock executions through simulated hangings and putting a gun in the mouth, beatings, suspension from hands and feet, prolonged solitary confinement, and denial of food and medical care.

Authorities have also used forced “confessions” as a propaganda tool, broadcasting videos on state media prior to judicial proceedings. Amnesty International reviewed 18 videos showing dozens of forced “confessions” featuring individuals in visible states of distress “confessing” to peaceful activities such as sharing videos of air strikes with foreign media. Several videos were broadcast on the days that individuals were executed.

Several deaths in custody have also been reported. In one case reported to Amnesty International, Hesam Alaeddin died in suspicious circumstances in detention. According to an informed source, he was arrested in Tehran in April 2026 while seeking information about his brother who had been detained weeks earlier in connection with alleged possession of a Starlink device. The source said the authorities phoned his family several weeks after his arrest, instructing them to collect his body. The exact timing and circumstances of his death remain unclear to Amnesty International.

In another case, Hossein Ghavi (Silavi), from Iran’s oppressed Ahwazi Arab ethnic minority, died in custody after arrest by the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, in late March 2026. According to reports from human rights organizations outside Iran, authorities had accused him of filming bombed areas and sending footage to media outside Iran. On 2 April 2026, the authorities phoned his family and said he had died but provided no cause of death.

Expedited trials, executions and harsh prison sentences

Authorities have escalated their use of the death penalty as a tool of political oppression, openly signalling expedited judicial proceedings on capital charges of those accused of alleged collaboration with Israel and/or the USA.

Iran’s highest judicial official, the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, has repeatedly invoked national security and “wartime conditions” to threaten people with harsh punishments. In one instance, in the first week of the US and Israeli attacks on 4 March 2026, he warned that individuals who “act in line with the wishes and illegitimate interests of the aggressor enemy will be dealt with decisively and severely”.

Even after the fragile ceasefire was announced, on 19 April 2026, in a meeting with members of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary and provincial prosecutors, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei instructed officials to fast-track prosecutions against “foot soldiers and accomplices of the aggressor enemy”, underscoring the need for extreme speed.

Other judicial officials from across the country, including prosecutors from Hamedan, Khuzestan, Qazvin, Razavi Khorasan, Semnan and other provinces have made similar threats.

Since 28 February 2026, the authorities have arbitrarily executed at least 39 individuals on politically motivated charges following torture-tainted grossly unfair trials. They comprise of 16 protesters, nine dissidents, 10 individuals accused of espionage for the USA and/or Israel, and four accused of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi). Scores of others remain at risk.

Authorities have also imposed harsh prison sentences. For instance, on 23 May 2026, the head of the justice department in Semnan province, Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, announced that two women were sentenced to 26 and 27 years in prison, respectively, for “establishing contact with hostile networks and sending visual content and information needed by the enemy to direct harassing actions against the honourable people of Iran.” He added that the harsh prison terms would serve as a “lesson” to others.

“The international community must not allow the Iranian authorities to use the conflict as a smokescreen to deepen their machinery of repression and carry out crimes under international law with impunity. Iran’s human rights and impunity crisis requires urgent and sustained diplomatic international action to prevent further atrocity crimes by the authorities, as well as establishing pathways for international justice including through the UN Security Council’s referral of Iran’s situation to the International Criminal Court,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.”

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