ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran has executed at least 100 Kurdish citizens since the start of 2025, including several political prisoners, a human rights watchdog warned Sunday. The surge comes as Iran has been upping its sentences on detainees, following its recent 12-day war with Israel.
“Since the beginning of 2025, the Islamic Republic of Iran has executed at least 100 Kurds, including four political prisoners,” reported the Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization. The watchdog censured what it described as Tehran’s “death-driven and discriminatory policy,” calling it “part of a broader project of structural oppression against the Kurdish people that must be halted immediately.”
On Saturday, Hengaw released a detailed report documenting a steep deterioration in the country’s human rights landscape following the June conflict between Iran and Israel.
According to the watchdog, between the outbreak of the war on June 13 and a month after the ceasefire on June 24, “at least 85 prisoners have been executed in various prisons” across Iran.
Among the executed were six individuals - three of them Kurdish - accused of “espionage for Israel.” Hengaw noted that these executions were carried out secretly, with no final visits permitted for families.
Hengaw also reported that “at least 30 political activists, including 18 Kurdish citizens, were sentenced to death or imprisonment" by the Iranian judiciary over the past month, with cumulative sentences amounting to 272 years and 9 months.
Additionally, the Oslo-based human rights monitor pointed to widespread arrests.
“From the start of the Iran-Israel war until one month after the ceasefire, at least 1,800 people were arrested across Iran,” it said. Kurds made up the largest share, with 500 detained. Many were accused by Iranian intelligence agencies of "espionage for Israel."
For its part, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) on Thursday corroborated these findings, reporting that "over 330 Kurdish activists and other citizens” were arrested across Iran by the Iranian intelligence ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence apparatus during the conflict with Israel and its aftermath.
Among them, 18 Kurdish political activists were collectively sentenced to 221 years and 7 months in prison, and five received a total of 11 death sentences for charges including “collaboration with [the Israeli intelligence agency] Mossad and Israel.”
These reports emerge amid new measures taken by Iranian authorities to intensify the crackdown on alleged espionage and collaboration with Israel and the United States.
Earlier this month, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, head of Iran’s judiciary, ordered expedited processing of spy cases linked to Israel. “Part of the deterrence in this matter lies in the speed of action,” Ejei said.
His comments followed the Iranian parliament’s passage of amendments to the country’s espionage laws, significantly broadening the definition of hostile activity and introducing capital punishment for a wider range of offenses linked to Israel and the United States.
Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated sharply on June 13 after Israeli airstrikes in Iran killed several senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets.
The conflict widened on June 22 when the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, prompting Tehran to strike back with a missile attack on a US base in Qatar. A ceasefire, brokered by Washington, took effect on June 24 and has largely held.
Since the ceasefire, Iranian authorities have ramped up arrests and executions of alleged spies, releasing televised confessions from several detainees. However, human rights groups have questioned the credibility of such confessions, citing longstanding concerns over Iran’s use of coercion to extract false admissions.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
