Why Iran’s Regime Is Executing Its Own People? – OpEd

The sharp rise in executions and the relentless persecution of political prisoners in Iran are not signs of strength; they are symptoms of fear. The ruling clerical regime is suppressing its own people because it is facing a deep and multi-layered crisis of legitimacy. 

Economic collapse, widespread public dissent, international isolation, and an organised democratic opposition have converged to expose the regime’s vulnerability. In response, it has chosen its most familiar survival tactic: repression through terror.

Nowhere is this more visible than in Iran’s prisons. Political prisoners, many of whom have already spent decades behind bars, are once again being used as instruments of intimidation. In 2025 alone, Iran has witnessed a record-breaking surge in executions. 

According to reports by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), more than 2,500 people have been executed since the current government took office. These numbers do not reflect criminal justice; they reflect state terror.

The regime’s judiciary, which lacks independence and operates under direct political control, has become a central pillar of repression. Death sentences are issued in rushed, opaque trials where basic legal safeguards are systematically denied. Confessions extracted under torture, denial of access to lawyers, and vague charges such as “enmity against God” or “support foropposition groups” are routinely used to justify executions. 

At present, at least 19 political prisoners face imminent execution solely for their alleged support for the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a core member of the NCRI. This pattern is not new. Iran’s prisons have long been sites of hidden massacres, most notoriously in 1988, when approximately 30,000 political prisoners were executed in a matter of months. 

Today’s executions follow the same logic: eliminate dissent, erase memory, and terrorise society into silence. The destruction of mass graves and the harassment of victims’ families show that the regime fears not only opposition, but truth itself.

I witnessed the urgency of this crisis firsthand in Brussels at the European Parliament on December 10, International Human Rights Day, where lawmakers, former heads of government, and global human rights advocates gathered to address Iran’s escalating repression. Being present at that conference was not merely symbolic; it was an act of responsibility. When voices inside Iran are silenced by prison walls and gallows, those outside must speak louder.

Speaker after speaker condemned decades of Western appeasement that have emboldened Tehran. Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt stated plainly that appeasement has “solved nothing,” while more than 2,500 people have been killed in just the past 16 months. Others warned that the international community’s failure to act decisively risks enabling another mass atrocity. The message was clear: silence is no longer neutrality, it is complicity.

Political prisoners in Iran are not only victims; they are symbols of resistance. Many have endured years, sometimes decades, of incarceration without breaking. Campaigns such as the prisoners’ weekly “No to Executions” protests, carried out despite brutal reprisals, demonstrate remarkable courage. Outside prison walls, resistance units continue to organise protests and acts of defiance across the country, reflecting a society that has not surrendered despite extraordinary repression.

The regime understands this reality. It executes not because it is confident, but because it is cornered. Faced with an organised resistance offering a democratic alternative, the authorities rely on executions to project control. Yet history shows that terror cannot extinguish a population’s demand for freedom, it only postpones the inevitable.

What makes the current moment especially critical is the regime’s extension of repression beyond Iran’s borders. Iranian dissidents, journalists, and activists in Europe and North America face threats, surveillance, and assassination attempts. These actions confirm that Tehran views accountability and exposure as existential threats.

The international response must therefore move beyond condemnation. Speakers at the European Parliament conference called for concrete measures: conditioning diplomatic relations on an end to executions, blacklisting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, protecting Iranian dissidents abroad, and recognising the NCRI as a legitimate democratic alternative. These are not radical demands; they are necessary steps to uphold the principles enshrined in international human rights law.

Political prisoners in Iran are asking for one thing above all: not to be forgotten. When the world looks away, the gallows accelerate. When the world speaks and acts, lives can be saved. The choice before the international community is stark. Continued inaction will embolden a regime that rules through fear. Principled action can help shift the balance toward justice.

Iran’s rulers may hang people to survive another day, but they cannot execute an idea whose time has come. The courage of political prisoners, the resilience of the Iranian people, and the existence of an organised democratic resistance prove that repression is not a solution, it is the regime’s final confession of failure.