Iran executed six men on Saturday who were accused of orchestrating deadly attacks in the country’s southwestern region on behalf of Israel, state media reported, as cited by Fox News. This development comes amid a dramatic surge in executions across the country, drawing severe condemnation from international human rights bodies.
The men who were executed in the oil-rich Khuzestan province were allegedly involved in a series of assaults targeting police and security forces in the city of Khorramshahr, alongside carrying out multiple bombings in the surrounding area.
Separately, authorities also confirmed another hanging in Kurdistan province, where a man convicted of murder in connection with the killing of a Sunni cleric in 2009, among other crimes, was executed, according to Fox News.
Disputed Confessions and Human Rights Concerns
State television broadcast footage of one of the executed men providing details of the attacks, claiming the confession was being made public for the first time.
However, the official narrative has been heavily disputed by the Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw. The group asserted that the six men were, in fact, Arab political prisoners who had been detained during the widespread anti-government protests of 2019. Hengaw claimed Iranian authorities had falsely linked the men to the separatist faction known as the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), which has been accused of pipeline bombings in the region.
Hengaw alleged that the individuals endured “severe torture and coerced into giving televised ‘confessions’ under duress.” The specific charges leveled against them, according to the group, included “transferring foreign currency through an international bank,” “carrying out armed attacks,” and “links to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA).”
Executions Surge After Iran-Israel Ceasefire
The executions take place just weeks after the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel in June concluded with a ceasefire agreement. Following the war, Tehran had publicly warned of retaliation against its “enemies at home and abroad.”
Regarding the conflict, the former United States Department of War, now known as the Department of Defence, stated that the Strikes had “obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities.” Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth credited President Trump for the successful military operation that resulted in the ceasefire agreement between the two nations.
International Condemnation of ‘Industrial Scale’ Hangings
The rapid pace of executions in Iran has triggered alarm across the international community. Amnesty International has reported that Iran has executed over 1,000 individuals this year, marking the highest figure recorded by the organisation in at least 15 years. This unprecedented rate has drawn chilling parallels to the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners by Tehran at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
Independent United Nations experts have issued sharp criticism of Tehran’s actions. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement warning, “With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.” The UN body strongly condemned the surge as “a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law,” and urged Iran to immediately halt the wave of hangings and adhere to basic international standards of justice.