BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, August 28, 2024, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
On August 26, a prisoner was barbarically executed in public in the city of Shahrud in Iran, according to the regime’s judiciary news agency. Less than a month since Massoud Pezeshkian, the new president of Iran’s theocratic regime, has taken office, and executions continue to surge across Iranian prisons.
As more signs of the regime’s weakness and internal disarray emerge and as protests and strikes over economic and social issues spread, the regime’s killing machine has sped up.
The number of documented executions during the Iranian month of Mordad (July 22 to August 21) has amounted to at least 126 prisoners.
Ali Khamenei has now set a grim new record for executions, one unseen in the last three decades. His regime is desperately trying to suppress the increasingly restive society, particularly women and rebellious youth, as disarray and infighting among the regime’s leadership could spark more protests and uprisings.
The surge in executions at the beginning of the term of the new president underscores that torture and execution remain vital to the survival of the regime.
Engaging with, negotiating with, or yielding to this regime—which leads the world in executions, terrorism, and warmongering in the 21st century—only emboldens its brutal human rights violations and further endangers regional and global peace.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, stated that these indiscriminate killings would only strengthen the resolve of the Iranian people and rebellious youth to overthrow the regime. She has called for immediate action from the UN and EU to save death row prisoners and to refer Iran’s human rights violations to the UN Security Council, urging that the regime’s leaders be brought to justice.