Newsnation – Iranian regime using executions to prevent revolt ahead of US negotiations
As a second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations is expected, Iranian refugees tell NewsNation the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to execute civilians in the war-torn nation.
An Iranian refugee who spoke to NewsNation under a condition of anonymity for their safety said, “They (IRGC) are continuously sentencing more and more protesters to execution, and they are hastily executing them.”
They continued that the regime uses execution as a means to control the civilian population from revolting against them.
“At least one or two executions every day are happening. They survive on the blood of people. They are doing it for two reasons: to scare people, in case they stay in power, and to leave people with an unbearable wound in case they are terminated.”
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported four protesters have been sentenced to death this week, including a woman tied to antiregime protests, Bita Hemmati.
Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl, Bita Hemmati, Behrouz Zamaninejad, and Kourosh Zamaninejad were sentenced to death on the charge of ‘operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups.’ These four defendants were also each sentenced to five years of discretionary imprisonment on the charge of ‘assembly and collusion against national security,’” HRANA reported.
The executions are announced on Iranian state TV, the refugee explained.
Even during wartime, the refugee said the regime’s “focus right now is the execution of protesters. They torture prisoners, some die during the torture, and some confess to untrue crimes and get executed without a fair trial or access to a lawyer or any communication with their families. The regime is executing for control of the people and to keep them as quiet as possible.”
Retired Lt. Col. Mike Nelson, who has extensive experience with U.S. Central Command, told NewsNation the regime is using executions as a way to temper down any potential popular revolts in Iran.
Nelson notes that since the future of the regime remains in the balance as negotiations continue with the U.S., Iranian leaders may “try to eliminate as many potential pitfalls and challenges and threats that they might have.”
“As the United States is looking to make a deal to end the conflict, Israel may still try to seek avenues to create pressure on Iran, and that might be by sponsoring some of the popular uprisings. So they are looking to eliminate as many challenges as they can as they deal with the problems in front of them,” Nelson stated.
He further elaborated that the Iranian regime is largely the same despite the killing of its former leader, Ali Khamenei, in a missile strike at the start of the conflict in March. Ali Khamenei was quickly replaced by his son Mojtaba Khamenei.
“We should not be under any illusions that this is a different regime in terms of how evil they are. This is the same regime that they were in January with slightly different leaders, and they have demonstrated that they are willing to kill their own people en masse, and they seem to be continuing that,” Nelson said.
Sources who spoke with NewsNation in February said the number of deaths during the protests is closer to 30,000, but an exact number is difficult to reach.
Iran’s judiciary chief has asked for hastening the process of executions, NewsNation reported last week.
In a video posted by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i said, “In cases where issuing rulings such as asset confiscation and the death penalty is warranted for enemy agents, the process should be expedited.”
Iranian sources told NewsNation in February that many protesters who have been captured by the regime’s police forces are being brutally tortured and raped in prison before being executed.
The refugee detailed how the political prisoners are executed.
“One day before the execution, they are taken to solitary confinement. A few hours before the execution, a religious cleric is brought in so they can pray. Before dawn, they are taken to the prison yard, and a bag is placed over their heads. As the Azan (Islamic call to prayer) is playing, they are hanged,” they said.
The refugee told NewsNation that dozens of protesters are currently on death row.
Iranian refugee, Rayan Amiri, founding leader of the Conservative Party of Iran, told NewsNation the executions are “ongoing and even more than before.”
Amiri added that the regime’s tactics towards political prisoners, such as protesters, have always been inhumane and brutal, including raping those detained.
“The Islamist regime occupying Iran has a long history of raping prisoners. One of the most well-known cases is the gang rape of 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, who was kidnapped from the protests during the 2022 Mahsa Amini Uprising and was raped by a group of IRGC agents in an ice-cream van. After raping and torturing her, they murdered her and took her dead body to a half-built building, throwing it down in order to stage her death as a suicide. Photos of her body later showed that her body was cut, and the effects of rape and torture were obvious. She was filmed participating in the protests, leading protesters, and burning her headscarf. She was chased down through several streets by IRGC agents before being captured, kidnapped, and finally murdered,” Amiri said.
“This is just one of thousands of pieces of evidence showing that the totalitarian regime occupying Iran is a deeply misogynistic and pedophilic cult that commits violence and crimes against humanity against women and children.”
The internet shutdown in Iran has entered its 48th day after 1,128 hours, according to NetBlocks. The regime controls the internet.
“These are horrific tragedies perpetrated by the Iranian terrorist regime. President Trump will never allow Iran – a nation that brutally kills its own people for merely speaking out against the regime’s oppression, chants ‘Death to America’, and is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror – to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman, told NewsNation.