Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has warned about the sharp rise in executions and death sentences in Iran, stating that the Islamic Republic is using the death penalty to instill fear throughout society and suppress political dissent.
According to Türk, since March 2026, at least 56 people have been executed on charges related to national security, with 27 of those cases linked to the nationwide protests. More than 100 others facing similar charges are currently at risk of receiving or having death sentences carried out.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported that a number of these death sentences were imposed following expedited trials and were based on confessions allegedly obtained through torture or other forms of ill-treatment. In some cases, only a few weeks elapsed between arrest, trial, and execution.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the immediate suspension of all executions. The imposition and implementation of death sentences in political and national security cases—particularly in the absence of fair trial guarantees—may constitute an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life and reflect the state’s use of capital punishment as a tool of public intimidation.