Reports: Iran uses war as cover for increased executions
Key takeaways
- Iran already had one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world.
- They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side.
- Since Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, the world has been mostly focused on the war, Iran's nuclear program, the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the future balance of power in the Middle East.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Iran already had one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world. Now, rights groups say, the country is using the current conflict to carry out even more executions, in an attempt to repress dissent.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Eykw A protest in the UK against Iran's increasing rate of executions Image: Amanda Rose/Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance Advertisement"Several young men born in the second half of the 2000s are sitting beside me. They are under 20. They keep moving their necks up and down and from side to side. I ask them what they are doing. They say: 'We are preparing our necks for the hangman's noose'."
This account by Soheil Arabi, a photoblogger who has been jailed several times since 2013 and who was recently released from one of Iran's largest prisons, Ghezel Hesar, after two months, offers a disturbing glimpse into human rights violations in Iran during the current conflict.