enforcement<\/a> of sentences is necessary to deter unrest.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe death penalty extends far beyond political cases. According to IHR, 227 people were executed after receiving qisas, or retribution-in-kind, sentences for murder, while 143 were executed for drug-related offenses. Twelve women, 17 foreign nationals, and at least 80 members of ethnic minorities were among those executed.<\/p>\n
Only two of the 444 documented executions were carried out publicly.<\/p>\n
For an anonymous source currently inside Iran, the continuation of executions itself is not regarded as something new. The deeper frustration, the source said, comes from the perception that what is happening inside the country is widely known but increasingly absent from the international conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnjust executions without a fair trial have always been happening here. That\u2019s not the shocking part to us. What we hate the most is that now almost everybody knows what\u2019s going on in Iran\u2014the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic. Every politician and news outlet is well aware [of] this, but they pretend it doesn\u2019t exist because it doesn\u2019t align with their interests. We don\u2019t expect much from these people\u2014the least is transparency,\u201d the source told The Media Line. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe silence of the media is nothing new to us, but it\u2019s definitely heartbreaking,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n
That loss of attention is also central to Amiry-Moghaddam\u2019s assessment of the current moment. \u201cSo, of course the media, they go for the hottest news, and right now it’s war. This is one of the reasons why the Islamic Republic actually prefers the current situation, because everything else comes under the shadow of the war,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
He argues that international priorities have moved toward containing the conflict and preserving regional economic stability. \u201cThey prefer to have at least some level of tension with the United States because that takes all the attention. For Western countries, the highest priority is not the human rights situation of Iranian people. Right now, it is that the Strait of Hormuz is open, that the oil prices and gas prices are not increased anymore, that there is stability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The effect of the war inside Iran is more complicated than a simple weakening of the state.<\/p>\n
According to Amiry-Moghaddam, the authorities have been able to mobilize supporters during the conflict, while the structural problems that have repeatedly fueled discontent\u2014inflation, shortages and economic mismanagement\u2014remain unresolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that compared to the time before the war, probably the regime is in a better shape. However, they are not capable of solving people’s daily problems. There is still mismanagement in the whole country,\u201d he said, highlighting electricity and water shortages alongside inflation. \u201cSooner or later, there will be new protests.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the conflict appears to have changed the immediate priorities of some Iranians. \u201cMaybe seven months ago, they had much more hope of regime change. Now, it seems that because of the war, they are much more preoccupied with their life situation not getting any worse. But it is getting worse, unfortunately,\u201d Amiry-Moghaddam said.<\/p>\n
The anonymous source inside Iran described the continuing uncertainty in more restrained terms. \u201cThe weight of the ongoing uncertainty over the conflict, well it\u2019s the same as before. Nothing has changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But executions are only one component of the domestic picture.<\/p>\n
Widespread arrests accompany Iran\u2019s expanding security crackdown<\/p>\n
Amiry-Moghaddam also described widespread arrests since the beginning of the conflict and warned that national-security legislation has expanded the authorities’ ability to impose severe sentences over alleged cooperation with organizations or media outside Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always arrests, but there is a new law that was passed last year during the fall, after the 12-day war last summer. It gives the authorities much more opportunity to give harsh sentences to people. For example, if someone has a video or messages sending to Farsi media outside the country, they can even be sentenced to death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to Amiry-Moghaddam, the scale extends well beyond individual cases. \u201cInside the prisons there are thousands who have been arrested since the war began. And as I mentioned, we think hundreds are sentenced to death. Many of them are subjected to torture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I’m concerned about is that as these military operations continue, the regime will use it even more to justify more arrests, more harsh sentences, more executions under the pretext of national security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Those estimates of arrests, death sentences and alleged torture come from Amiry-Moghaddam\u2019s own account and are distinct from IHR’s independently documented execution statistics.<\/p>\n
For him, the significance of capital punishment also goes beyond the individual prisoners who ultimately face execution. He argues that repeated executions create a broader climate of intimidation capable of affecting political activity and freedom of expression even among people who have never been detained. \u201cI think we should not underestimate the importance of the executions for the regime. \u2026 Just seven months ago, people used to post on their social media channels; they were not so afraid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I think, especially because of all these executions that they hear about every single day, we see the impact of the death penalty on the freedom of speech, on basically everything people do,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
Iran executions receive less global attention than 2022 protests<\/p>\n
The contrast with previous waves of international attention is particularly significant.<\/p>\n
The death of Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022 and the subsequent \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d protests generated demonstrations and widespread solidarity internationally. Amiry-Moghaddam says that level of public attention has not been replicated during the current period. \u201cWhen we compare a situation with the time after the Women. Life. Freedom. Movement, we see that also the public opinion and the solidarity that the Iranian people used to have during that movement is not there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does not attribute the shift exclusively to Western governments or media. Part of the problem, he argues, stems from within the Iranian opposition, which is increasingly divided over the war and how foreign military intervention should be viewed. \u201cAnd you probably have seen Iranians going out with the American flag, Israeli flag, and I don’t think it has a positive impact on the public opinion in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Amiry-Moghaddam was also explicit in separating opposition to the Islamic Republic from support for bombing Iran. \u201cI don’t think it is morally right either. Although I understand it’s because of desperation, we cannot express happiness because Iran is being bombed. These past few months have been very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
That distinction sits at the center of the human rights dilemma created by the current conflict. Military pressure on Tehran has not stopped executions or arrests. According to Amiry-Moghaddam, it may instead give authorities another justification for repression while shifting international scrutiny toward military and economic priorities.<\/p>\n
His argument is therefore that human rights must return to the diplomatic agenda independently of how the military confrontation develops. He sees Europe’s potential role not as determining Iran’s political future but as increasing the external consequences of domestic repression.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe change in the system, that must come from inside by the Iranian people, but what Europe can do is to raise the political cost of the repression, the executions, and that’s what we are hoping. The rest, I think, Iranian people will do,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
For now, however, the contrast is growing sharper.<\/p>\n
Iran’s military confrontation has become an international security story. Inside the country, according to IHR and the accounts provided for this article, executions and arrests have continued alongside it\u2014while receiving considerably less attention than the conflict surrounding them.<\/p>\n
For Amiry-Moghaddam, that also explains why war should not automatically be interpreted as a pathway to change inside Iran. \u201cWe really should hope that the war ends, because this is an asymmetric war, and this is the expertise of the Iranian regime. That’s what they are good at. They do whatever it takes to hold on to power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regime must answer to people why their daily issues are not solved, why do they have a shortage of everything, basically. I haven’t given up the hope for a change, but I think that the war is not helping it,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran executed at least 71 people in July, including six protesters, according to Iran Human Rights (IHR), a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[11793,1722,34,715],"class_list":["post-241133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-execution","tag-human-rights","tag-iran","tag-the-media-line"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117061142947347662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}