“The bombs are making noise and the world is looking at Iran, but what about the silence that is killing innocent people every day?” Azadeh Afsahi, founder of Iran House, told Iran International’s Eye for Iran podcast.

Rights groups say the war did not create the crackdown but has provided political cover for the Islamic Republic to fast-track death sentences, conceal executions from families and intimidate a population already traumatized by the violent suppression of nationwide protests in January.

Accelerated executions raise alarm

Rights groups estimate that around 100 political prisoners and protesters have received death sentences, while hundreds more face capital charges. More than 70 people are awaiting execution in Dastgerd Prison in the central city of Isfahan, according to Iran Human Rights.

Iran Human Rights says at least 24 people have been executed in connection with the January protests since March 19, most recently Mehdi Khaneki, a 26-year-old law graduate who was put to death on July 22.

Others have been executed over alleged ties to banned opposition groups or on espionage charges.

Those facing execution include people arrested following protests in Isfahan on January 8.

Iran executed Erfan Esfandiari, reportedly 18, and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, a 23-year-old Afghan national, on July 19. Iranian authorities accused them of involvement in the deaths of four members of the security forces.

Rights groups say the defendants were denied fair trials and access to independent legal representation. Ten other men prosecuted in the same case remain at risk of execution, according to UN investigators.

The UN Human Rights Council-mandated fact-finding mission called on Tehran on Thursday to halt the executions immediately. It said relatives of at least two prisoners had been summoned for what appeared to be final visits, raising fears that further executions could be imminent.

The mission also raised alarm over efforts to expedite protest-related proceedings. It noted that Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi announced on July 15 that cases connected to the protests and recent hostilities had been finalized and referred to court following an order from judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to accelerate proceedings.

ARTICLE 19, citing figures compiled by Hengaw, said Iran executed 109 people in June, including three women—a 10% increase from the same month last year. Only seven of those executions were officially announced, while at least 12 families received no advance notice, according to the organization.

The lack of warning has left some relatives learning about executions through official media.

According to AFP, the family of Vahid Baniamerian, a 34-year-old physics lecturer, received no warning before his execution. A relative said they were still awaiting a Supreme Court review when reports of his imminent execution began appearing in state media.

Baniamerian was executed alongside five other men convicted of alleged membership in the outlawed People’s Mujahedin Organization.

The executions also drew a response from US President Donald Trump, who wrote “Savages!!!” while reposting an image and account of Mohammadi’s execution. He also shared posts about Esfandiari.

Trump had previously warned Tehran against executing protesters. During the January 2026 uprising, he said the United States would take “very strong action” if authorities carried out hangings and told Iranians that “help is on its way.”

Human rights advocates, however, say public condemnation has not been matched by sufficient action.

Fear of another uprising

Shahin Milani, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, said the regime views internal rebellion as a greater threat to its survival than the prospect of a large-scale foreign invasion.

He said the Islamic Republic may fear its own population more than US military action. “The most serious threat that they face is from internal rebellion. This is from Iranian people bringing the regime down.”

Milani said the severity of the January crackdown demonstrated how seriously the authorities viewed that threat.

“They set a new standard in their own regime for brutality,” he said.

The executions, Milani argued, are intended both to frighten the wider population and demonstrate strength to regime supporters who might otherwise consider defecting.

He said they may delay further unrest but cannot resolve the economic hardship and political discontent driving opposition to the government.

“You cannot kill your way out of economic misery and discontent,” he said, predicting renewed demonstrations could emerge within months or years.

Afsahi said the crackdown has deepened depression and trauma among survivors and victims’ families, while international attention remains concentrated on the military conflict.

“Everybody cares about the bombs, but nobody cares about the hanging that is happening every day,” she said.

Despite that trauma, Afsahi said many survivors remain prepared to protest again.

“They’re just waiting,” she said. “They’re ready for that next ignition to be able to go out again.”

Brandon Silver, an international human rights lawyer and director at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said the executions should be viewed within the broader context of Iran’s record of domestic repression.

He pointed to the country’s high rates of executions, executions of people convicted of crimes allegedly committed as children, state hostage-taking and imprisonment of journalists.

“There is an effort to obfuscate, to hide these staggering statistics,” Silver said, describing the executions as part of “an ongoing campaign of mass domestic repression.”

He argued that abuses inside Iran have repeatedly spilled beyond its borders through hostage-taking and alleged plots targeting journalists, dissidents and human rights advocates abroad.

“When they’re able to carry this out within Iran, it puts all of us everywhere in danger,” he said.

Silver called on governments to move beyond statements by expelling officials involved in repression, imposing visa bans and freezing and seizing the foreign assets of regime figures. Those assets, he proposed, should be redirected to victims of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian prisoners have also begun challenging the execution campaign from inside the country. About 1,500 prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related offenses in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison have staged a hunger strike and sit-in since July 13. The protest began after six inmates were transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for execution.

The protest has added a rare form of resistance from inside Iran’s prisons to the growing international campaign against the executions, according to the advocates interviewed by Eye for Iran.

They said the executions may demonstrate the regime’s capacity for repression, but they also reveal its fear that the anger driving Iran’s protest movement remains unresolved.

The war may have pushed that movement out of the headlines. It has not, they warned, eliminated it.