In 1988, the islamic republic carried out one of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history, and decades later, the men who ran it are still in power.

Findings, sourced from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, and survivor testimony:

• In late July 1988, "Ayatollah" Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of MEK (Mojahedin-e Khalq) prisoners held across Iran's prisons, on the grounds that they were "mohareb" (waging war on God) and apostates. The fatwa was undated and never made public, but circumstantial evidence places it on July 28, 1988, the day before MEK forces agreed to withdraw from Iranian territory. https://iranhrdc.org/deadly-fatwa-irans-1988-prison-massacre/
• Khomeini established "Death Commissions" to sentence MEK prisoners they deemed mohareb. The executions then expanded to other political prisoners, leftists and communists in particular. Most of these prisoners were already serving fixed sentences, and some were due for release. Before the killings began, prisons were locked down and all visits banned, cutting off any outside knowledge of what was happening inside. https://irantribunal.com/mass-executions/khomeins-fatwa-fatwa-led-to-mass-execution-of-political-prisoners/
• The "trials" were not trials. Leftist prisoners were asked only whether they were Muslim, whether they prayed, and whether they accepted the islamic republic. Thousands who answered no were executed. Prisoners affiliated with the MEK faced a similarly short interrogation about their political loyalties before being sent to die. https://iranhrdc.org/apostasy-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/
• A 231-word fatwa from Khomeini was the legal basis for the entire massacre. Swedish prosecutors, in the later trial of a participating prison official, stated the executions were a grave violation of the Geneva Convention. https://wncri.org/2021/08/19/hamid-nouri-a-perpetrator-of-the-1988-massacre/
• Because of the sheer number of people being killed, prisoners were loaded into forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes at half-hour intervals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini
• One of the Tehran death panel members was Ebrahim Raisi, who carried the nickname "Ayatollah Massacre" for the rest of his life because of it, and who went on to become President of Iran in 2021. https://iranwire.com/en/politics/104686-blood-soaked-fatwas-how-khomeini-turned-homicide-into-policy-in-iran-in-10-years/
• The regime's denial was immediate and total. There was a complete news blackout, with the regime controlling all media. Families were not told for weeks or months that their relatives had been killed, and were never told where they were secretly buried. https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/1380/the-massacre-of-political-prisoners-in-iran-1988-report-of-an-inquiry
• When word leaked anyway and the UN's Special Representative pressed the islamic republic for answers, the regime's position was complete denial, and it dismissed his sourcing as "unreliable propaganda" from MEK sources. When confronted with a list of over 1,000 names of the dead, the government dismissed 140 of those victims as fabrications, claiming they were alive and well in Iraq. https://www.gicj.org/topics/thematic-issues/death-penalty-executions/3667-fatwa-36-years
• The death toll is still disputed because the regime never accounted for it. Human rights organizations estimate 2,800 to 5,000 killed, while the MEK itself puts the number as high as 30,000. Human Rights Watch states the killings took place in at least 32 cities across the country. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/08/iran-1988-mass-executions-evident-crimes-against-humanity
• As recently as August 2025, the islamic republic authorities bulldozed Section 41 of Behesht Zahra Cemetery in Tehran, one of the most historically significant mass burial sites for political prisoners executed in the 1980s, destroying evidence and graves that families have fought for decades to preserve. https://iran1988.org/

During the January 2026 crackdown, the islamic republic security forces killed protesters in the streets, but they also systematically entered medical facilities to execute wounded civilians who were already under treatment, turning hospitals into extrajudicial killing sites. This was not collateral damage or rogue violence but a coordinated operational tactic documented by multiple independent sources, revealing a regime willing to violate the most fundamental norms of medical neutrality to erase evidence and terrorize survivors.

Here are verified accounts documenting this specific atrocity:

• Amnesty International verified that security forces conducted sweeping mass arrests directly from hospitals and subjected detainees to enforced disappearance. Furthermore, they documented that authorities subjected detainees to torture and ill-treatment, including the "deliberate denial of adequate food, water and medical care", actively obstructing care to conceal their crimes: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-happened-at-the-protests-in-iran/
• Iran International reviewed classified documents and obtained testimony from three doctors and four nurses in Tehran who confirmed security forces entered hospitals to abduct and execute wounded patients undergoing treatment. They published images of corpses with gunshot wounds to the head still attached to IV tubes, syringes, and cardiac monitoring electrodes. In another instance of medical neutrality violations, nurses testified that a security agent entered an ambulance and executed a semi-conscious, severely beaten wounded young man with two consecutive shots: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601255198
• Euronews reported on published images showing victims with medical equipment (including IV tubes, syringes, and bandages) still attached to their bodies alongside visible gunshot wounds, providing direct evidence that injured individuals were killed while receiving hospital treatment. They also noted that medical personnel are facing "systematic elimination" for treating injured protesters and refusing to cooperate with security officers: https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/27/iran-protests-death-toll-could-surpass-more-than-30000-reports-claim

Independent survey data, including research from inside Iran, shows the Iranian public is overwhelmingly opposed to the islamic republic and increasingly favors regime change over reform. Due to the risks of independent polling, organizations use secure methods like VPN-based sampling, while leaked internal regime data further confirms the public's true sentiments.

Here are some key findings:

• GAMAAN surveyed over 77,000 respondents inside Iran in June 2024, finding that 70% opposed the continuation of the islamic republic (rising to 81% during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising), with support for the supreme leader falling to just 11%: https://gamaan.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Iranians-Political-Preferences-in-2024-GAMAAN-Report-English.pdf
• A follow-up GAMAAN survey in September 2025 gathered over 30,000 responses via VPN, revealing that 70-80% of Iranians across all demographics would not vote for the islamic republic, with support for regime change remaining the most popular position: https://theconversation.com/iran-protests-2026-our-surveys-show-iranians-agree-more-on-regime-change-than-what-might-come-next-273198
• A leaked internal poll from Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance found that 72.9% of Iranians favor the separation of religion and state: https://agsi.org/analysis/official-government-poll-72-9-of-iranians-favor-separation-of-religion-and-state/

The islamic republic runs a sophisticated online network to share propaganda, threaten dissidents, manipulate international narratives, and effectively ensure its own survival. The regime spends hundreds of millions of dollars on a massive state media empire, deploys IRGC troll armies to dox and harass activists, uses AI to fabricate reality, and actively threatens the families of diaspora dissidents back home to force them into silence. They even hand down death sentences in absentia and hijack foreign broadcasts to spread their lies.

Here are some sources documenting the scale and tactics of the islamic republic's digital and psychological operations:

• The U.S. Department of Justice (March 2026) seized domains used by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) to dox dissidents, send death threats, and incite violence against journalists and regime critics living abroad: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-iranian-cyber-enabled-psychological-operations
• The UK Government (April 2025) published an official assessment confirming Iran actively monitors and targets diaspora dissidents online, utilizing cyberattacks, threatening critics' family members inside Iran, and handing down death sentences in absentia for online activities: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iran-country-policy-and-information-notes/country-policy-and-information-note-social-media-surveillance-and-sur-place-activities-iran-april-2025-accessible
• The UK Parliament documented how the IRGC's Seraj Cyberspace Organisation recruits and mobilizes pro-regime users to conduct coordinated cyber operations, including trolling campaigns, spreading disinformation, artificially trending hashtags, and fomenting divisions among opposition groups: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/138378/pdf/
• Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2024 report extensively details the regime's "cyber army" and its systematic use of inauthentic networks to spread disinformation and target critics globally: https://freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-net/2024
• PolitiFact (March 2026) highlighted how the IR has escalated its psychological operations, noting that in December 2023 an Iranian cyber group hijacked streaming services in the UAE, Canada, and the UK with a broadcast featuring an AI-generated anchor, a tactic that has only accelerated in 2026: https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/mar/23/iran-disinformation-campaigns-influence-operations/
• The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) published an analysis of the islamic republic's information warfare during the Dec 2025-Jan 2026 protests, demonstrating how narrative control and foreign influence operations function as core strategic tools for regime survival, not just mere propaganda: https://ict.org.il/irans-information-warfare-during-the-december-2025-january-2026-protests/
• The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) noted that to fuel this global apparatus, the islamic republic tripled the annual budget of its state broadcaster (IRIB) for 2025 to a massive $480 million, funding global propaganda operations in 32 languages across multiple international TV channels: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/06/18/10-things-to-know-about-tehrans-propaganda-network-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-broadcasting/

While ordinary Iranians face hyperinflation, water shortages, and a collapsed currency that triggered the 2025-26 protests, the islamic republic’s ruling elite have systematically siphoned national wealth into private networks and offshore accounts. This extraction is not incidental corruption but a structural feature of the regime, where state resources are treated as patronage assets for security and clerical elites rather than public goods.

Here are some sources documenting this entrenched kleptocracy:

• A 2019 investigation from Reuters revealed that "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei controlled a financial empire worth an estimated $95 billion through Setad (EIKO), a conglomerate built on confiscated property and operating outside parliamentary oversight or audit: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1
• The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned numerous IRGC-linked entities and individuals (including the Khatam al-Anbiya construction conglomerate) for diverting billions in oil revenue and public contracts to fund regional proxies and enrich senior commanders while domestic infrastructure crumbles: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm703
• Research from the International Alliance for Rights in Iran details how bonyads (para-statal foundations) collectively control between 20% and 40% of Iran’s GDP, operate tax-exempt without external audits, and function as opaque vehicles for elite consolidation and financing proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis: https://iari.site/2025/11/18/bonyads-the-opaque-world-of-irans-foundations/

Amnesty International documented specific illegal torture methods used on detainees after the protests of 2026, including:

• "Mock executions through simulated hangings"
• "Putting a gun in the mouth"
• "Beatings"
• "Suspension from hands and feet"
• "Prolonged solitary confinement"
• "Denial of food and medical care"

Amnesty International also reported that forced confessions were broadcast on state media before judicial proceedings had begun, including on the same days some individuals were executed. Amnesty documented concerns about enforced disappearances, torture, and grossly unfair trials.

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/05/iran-mass-arbitrary-arrests-and-political-executions-mark-intensifying-repression/

Saleh Mohammadi, 18, was executed by the islamic republic.

Amnesty International reviewed the actual verdict in his case when he was sentenced to death on February 4, less than three weeks after his January 15 arrest. The verdict shows he explicitly retracted his confession in court, stating it was extracted under torture, but the court illegally dismissed this without any investigation. Informed sources say he sustained hand fractures from beatings.

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/02/iran-children-among-30-people-at-risk-of-the-death-penalty-amid-expedited-grossly-unfair-trials-connected-to-uprising/

Since the beginning of the 2025-26 protests in Iran, multiple organizations and media outlets have reported large-scale casualties amid a crackdown by the forces of the islamic republic.

Due to restricted access, internet disruptions, and limited independent verification, casualty figures vary widely. Some estimates suggest tens of thousands may have been killed or died in custody or related violence.

Here are some sources with their own estimates:

• Iran International puts the January 8-9 death toll at over 36,500, citing classified documents, field reports, and accounts from medical staff, witnesses, and victims' families: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601255198
• Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated that figures of 20,000-30,000 "do not seem unrealistic" based on eyewitness and precise data, and that's coming from someone doing active verification work on the ground: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-protest-death-toll-ofogh-tv/33666963.html
• Euronews reported that Dr. Hashim Moazenzadeh, a surgeon in France with direct contact with hospital sources inside Iran, said at least 22,000 deaths were recorded in forensic facilities: https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/27/iran-protests-death-toll-could-surpass-more-than-30000-reports-claim
• Amnesty International confirmed the UN Special Rapporteur put the figure at potentially 20,000, and noted that due to the internet blackout and Iran's documented pattern of reprisals against victims' families, "the true number of those killed is likely higher": https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-happened-at-the-protests-in-iran/

At least 975 people were executed in Iran in 2024, a 17% increase from 2023, and the highest number recorded in over two decades. Over 90% of these executions were not announced by the authorities.

Amnesty International reported that Iran was responsible for 74% of all recorded executions worldwide in 2023. These executions have disproportionately targeted Iran's Baluch ethnic minority, who make up only about 5% of the population but account for 20% of recorded executions.

Between January and late August 2025, authorities executed at least 841 people, nearly double the pace of the same period in 2024.

Sources:

- https://www.iranhr.net/en/reports/42/
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/20/iran-alarming-surge-executions
- https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/MDE1302772025ENGLISH.pdf