Iran’s Execution Machine Accelerates as the World Looks Away
While much of the world’s attention has been fixed on negotiations with Tehran, military threats and the Strait of Hormuz, another campaign has continued largely unnoticed by the world, inside Iran.
Between July 22 and August 4, Human Rights Group HRANA documented at least ten executions carried out by the Islamic regime in Iran. The victims included protesters arrested during the January uprising, as well as men accused of “espionage.” Several were executed publicly, and others were buried before sunrise under heavy security, with families given little time to collect their loved ones before funeral restrictions took effect.
Those executions are only part of an ongoing campaign of slaughter by the regime. Another 67 prisoners are believed to be at imminent risk of execution. The current wave is growing, not slowing.
In July alone, HRANA recorded at least 66 executions, including two public hangings. By the end of the month, the annual number had ballooned to approximately 854 executions since January — an average of roughly four people every day. That follows an already staggering 2025, with a documented 2,063 executions, including 61 women, two juvenile offenders and eleven public hangings.
The first major case during this two-week period came on July 28, when the regime publicly hanged Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari in Isfahan’s Alikhani Square. Both had been arrested during the nationwide protests that erupted in January and convicted in what became known as the “Alikhani Square” case. Their bodies were withheld from their families after the executions, while relatives of other defendants gathered outside Dastgerd Prison fearing additional death sentences would soon be carried out.
The executions triggered public outrage after images of the scaffolding being installed in Isfahan surfaced on social media. Videos showed crowds gathering outside the prison over night, chanting “dishonorable” against the IRGC and Basij forces, who moved in to violently disperse them by opening fire. At least one young Iranian woman was killed, and the executions in the prison were carried out. The following day, the Islamic regime threatened Iranians for even publicly condemning the executions.
On August 1, the executions continued with Arvin Kheirkhahan, a 19 year old protester arrested during the January uprising. He was hanged at four in the morning inside Shahrud Prison, after being convicted of moharebeh—“enmity against God”—by a Revolutionary Court. Like many similar cases, there is no public record explaining the “evidence” presented against him, the circumstances of his interrogation, whether he had access to counsel or how the court reached its decision. Two days later, Iranian protesters Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat were also executed after being convicted of “spying” for Israel.
These barbaric executions are not anomalies. They are part of an ongoing campaign to crack down and terrorize the Iranian population at extraordinary speed — and the regime is ramping up executions precisely because they’re being given the opportunity to breathe.
It isn’t a coincidence these events are taking place during one of the most consequential diplomatic weeks of the year. On July 29, President Donald Trump warned that the United States was prepared to strike the Islamic Republic and declared that an attack could be imminent. Three days later, he announced that the operation had been canceled after regional mediation efforts and what he described as progress towards a deal.
Within roughly forty-eight hours of that announcement, Arvin Kheirkhahan was executed. Two days later, Behzad and Safvat were hanged.
No one is arguing that Washington’s decision to pause military action caused those executions. But the sequence reflects a pattern that has repeated itself for years. Whenever international policy shifts toward appeasement, the regime intensifies repression at home, using executions to reinforce fear and eliminate perceived opponents.
The response from much of the international community has been muted. Norway condemned the executions connected to the January protests, while a U.S. official also criticized the execution of demonstrators. Beyond those statements, sustained international pressure has been difficult to find.
The same can be said for much of the international media. Despite roughly ten executions in less than two weeks, public hangings, protests outside prisons and dozens more prisoners reportedly awaiting execution, the story has received only sporadic attention outside Persian-language outlets and human rights organizations. One of the largest execution campaigns in the world is unfolding largely beyond the headlines.
If the past two weeks are any indication, the regime believes, and not without evidence, that it can continue escalating this campaign while the world’s attention remains somewhere else.