ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian authorities carried out more than 50 executions in May, a US-based human rights monitor reported on Monday, highlighting an increase in death sentences involving political prisoners as a comprehensive resolution to the Iran war stalls.
“During the past month, the Iranian regime carried out 55 executions,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in its monthly report, detailing that “twenty-two of the individuals had been sentenced to death on murder charges, while sixteen had been convicted of drug-related offenses,” and “two others were executed on charges of spreading corruption on earth - efsad-e fel-arz.”
The monitor also noted that the circumstances of two executions remain unclear.
Importantly, HRANA described as a “particularly notable development” the “execution of 13 individuals on political and security-related charges, including five people convicted of espionage,” further pointing to a rise in “the execution of political and security prisoners” in the wake of the Iran war.
The US and Israel in late February launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran, striking thousands of targets across the country during six weeks of hostilities.
In response, Tehran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets in the region, as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
Iran and the US agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks. While the first round of talks concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place.
Against the backdrop of the 40-day war, Tehran has repeatedly come under fire for accelerating executions, particularly of dissidents, fueling speculations of wartime reprisals.
In its Monday report, HRANA further noted that Iranian authorities “also confiscated the assets of 821 individuals” during the month of May, a practice that, according to decisions by Iran’s senior judicial officials, has intensified in light of the war and has been “particularly directed against opponents of the regime, especially those residing outside the country,” the rights monitor said.
Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei in mid-April stated that the assets of the individuals who collaborate with “the aggressor” - an indirect reference to the US and Israel - must be “seized and confiscated for the benefit of the nation.”
Meanwhile, Iranian Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan said in mid-May that authorities had arrested more than 6,500 “traitors to the homeland” and “spies” during and after the war.
In addition to political and security-related cases, HRANA recorded other types of human rights violations, including the dismissal of 551 workers across Iran for participating in protests for better labor rights and the killing of seven “kolbars [border smugglers] and fuel carriers” by direct shooting.
“Iranian courts also sentenced 35 individuals to a combined total of 3,575 months of imprisonment for expressing their views and opinions,” the HRANA report noted.
Global rights monitor Amnesty International in mid-May reported 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025, noting that the figure is the highest since the organization’s inception in 1981 and adding that Iran accounts for the overwhelming majority of executions.
“Executions in 2025 soared to the highest figure recorded by Amnesty International since 1981, with 2,707 people executed across 17 countries,” the organization’s Death Sentences and Executions 2025 report said, adding that the rise “was down to a handful of governments determined to rule by fear” and censuring Iranian authorities as “the main drivers behind the spike,” after executing “at least 2,159 people - more than double its 2024 figure.”
Iran has for decades been accused by rights monitors of using the death penalty as a systematic tool of political repression and social control, especially against marginalized groups - such as ethnic minorities, impoverished drug couriers, and low-level users - and dissidents to assert absolute dominance over populations that are most likely to protest.
The United Nations human rights chief in late April said he was “appalled” by a surge in executions in Iran, which has left at least 21 people executed since the outbreak of the six-week Iran war in late February, for their “alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges.”
Volker Turk further censured Iranian authorities over the arrest of some 4,000 people during the same period.
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