ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Tehran should not execute people solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
"There should not be any executions against majority groups, against minority groups. We stand against the death penalty, especially when it is applied, when people were just using their given rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told Rudaw’s Namo Abdulla during a press briefing when asked about Iran’s ongoing executions targeting minority groups, including Kurds.
Iran has accelerated the issuance of death sentences since the outbreak of its war with the United States and Israel on February 28 — a confrontation that lasted nearly six weeks before a ceasefire was reached on April 8.
Late last month, the United Nations confirmed 21 executions and more than 4,000 arrests since the war. Those detained during the 2022 protests, the January 2026 protests, and the 12-Day war with Israel in June 2025 — along with individuals arrested during wartime in March this year — have reportedly faced expedited legal proceedings on charges including espionage and “collaboration with the enemy.”
In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International said that “the international community must not stand idly by while the Iranian authorities continue to escalate the arbitrary execution of political dissidents and protesters to instill fear.”
Kurdish prisoner Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, one of several Kurds recently executed by Tehran, said he had been forced to confess to a crime he did not commit, according to a phone call with a rights group that was published after his execution by Iranian authorities on Sunday.
