Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Since the US-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, at least nine people have been executed in connection with the protests that rocked Iran in January 2026, another 10 for alleged membership of opposition groups and two on spying charges, the UN’s rights office said.
More than 4,000 people are meanwhile estimated to have been arrested on national security-related grounds, the agency added.
It said many detainees had been victims of forced disappearances, torture or “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”, including forced confessions – sometimes televised – and mock executions.
“I am appalled that – on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict – the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
“I call on the authorities to halt all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained.”
Iran executes more people each year than any country but China, according to several rights groups, including Amnesty International.
