Iran executions seemingly ‘tool of state intimidation’

Iran appears to be using executions “as a tool of state intimidation”, the United Nations said yesterday, as it denounced a jump in capital punishment globally in 2025.

The Islamic republic reportedly executed 1,500 people last year, UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

“The scale and pace of executions suggest a systematic use of capital punishment as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and migrants,” he warned.

The spike in executions in Iran -- which according to rights groups is the world’s most prolific executioner after China -- had contributed to “an alarming increase” in the use of capital punishment worldwide last year, Turk said.

Meanwhile, Iran may lift its internet blackout in a few days, a senior parliament member said yesterday, after authorities shut communications while they used massive force to crush protests in the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In the latest sign of weakness in the authorities’ control, state television appeared to be hacked late on Sunday, briefly showing speeches by US President Donald Trump and the exiled son of Iran’s last shah calling on the public to revolt, reports Reuters.

Iran’s streets have largely been quiet for a week since anti-government protests that began in late December were put down in three days of mass violence.

An Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the confirmed death toll was more than 5,000, including 500 members of the security forces, with some of the worst unrest taking place in ethnic Kurdish areas in the northwest. Western-based Iranian rights groups also say thousands were killed.