Amnesty International calls for global action to halt executions and hold Iranian officials accountable
September 26, 2025 – Amnesty International has sounded the alarm over what it describes as a “horrifying assault on the right to life” in Iran, revealing that the regime has already executed more than 1,000 people in 2025 — the highest annual figure the organization has recorded in at least 15 years.
According to the human rights watchdog, the number of executions carried out by the Iranian authorities within just nine months has already surpassed the total of 972 recorded in 2024. Amnesty attributes the surge to the regime’s intensified use of the death penalty as an instrument of state repression, particularly since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
A Weapon of Repression
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, condemned the dramatic escalation:
“The ongoing escalation of executions in Iran has reached horrific proportions as the Iranian authorities continue to systematically weaponize the death penalty as a tool of repression and to quash dissent while displaying a chilling assault on the right to life.”
Amnesty’s findings show that the authorities have expanded executions under the guise of “national security,” especially following the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran after Israeli strikes in June 2025. The organization noted that dissidents, protesters, members of ethnic minorities, and people convicted of drug-related offenses are among those most frequently targeted.
Unfair Trials and Systematic Abuses
Amnesty stressed that Revolutionary Courts, which handle drug and national security cases, operate without independence and routinely hand down death sentences following grossly unfair trials. Defendants are regularly denied legal rights, subjected to torture, and forced to confess under duress.
The execution of Babak Shahbazi on September 17, after a sham trial in which his torture allegations were ignored, exemplifies this pattern.
Disproportionate Targeting of Minorities
The report highlights that marginalized communities, particularly Afghans, Baluchis, and Kurds, are disproportionately impacted.
- The number of Afghans executed rose from 25 in 2023 to 80 in 2024 and continues to climb in 2025 amid widespread racist rhetoric and forced mass expulsions.
- Kurdish women such as Pakhshan Azizi and Verisheh Moradi are under death sentences and face imminent execution.
Amnesty emphasized that these groups are systematically targeted under vague charges such as “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz), and “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi).
Politically Motivated Executions
Since mid-June 2025, at least ten men have been executed on politically motivated charges, eight of them accused of spying for Israel. Dozens of others, including Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali and labor rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, remain at risk of execution.
The organization noted that Sharifeh Mohammadi’s conviction and death sentence were upheld by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court in August, despite grossly unfair proceedings.
Calls for International Action
Amnesty urged immediate international intervention to halt the executions, calling for pressure on Tehran to impose an official moratorium as the first step toward abolishing the death penalty.
“The death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstances and deploying it on a large scale following routinely grossly unfair trials compounds the injustice,” said Morayef.
“The international community must take robust, immediate action to pressure the Iranian authorities to halt all planned executions, quash all death sentences, and impose an official moratorium.”
The statement also called on governments to hold Iranian officials accountable by exercising universal jurisdiction over those suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law and grave human rights violations.
Expanding Death Penalty Laws
Amid the wave of executions, senior judiciary figures such as Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i have called for expedited trials and executions for those accused of “collaborating” with hostile states. Iran’s parliament has also advanced legislation that would broaden the scope of capital punishment to include vaguely worded charges like “cooperation with hostile governments” and “espionage.”
A Violation of International Law
Amnesty International reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, stressing that its application for drug-related offenses is a direct violation of international law.
The organization concluded that the Iranian regime’s systematic use of executions constitutes not only a domestic human rights crisis but also a global concern requiring urgent and coordinated action.
