On October 4, 2025, Iran executed six men it accused of orchestrating attacks in the oil-rich Khuzestan province on behalf of Israel, a move that has drawn both fierce condemnation and concern from human rights organizations around the globe. The executions, announced by Iran’s judiciary and widely reported by international media including the Associated Press and NBC News, mark the latest—and most dramatic—escalation in a wave of capital punishment that has swept the country since the brief but intense Iran-Israel war in June 2025.
The Iranian authorities allege that the six men, whose identities were not immediately made public, were responsible for killing police officers and security forces, as well as orchestrating bombings targeting sites around Khorramshahr, a city in the restive Khuzestan province. According to the judiciary’s statement on its official Mizan website, "The death sentence for six separatist terrorist elements, who in recent years had carried out a series of armed operations and bombings targeting security in Khuzestan province, was carried out at dawn today." The report further stated that the men had confessed to planning and executing acts of sabotage, including making and planting bombs, and blowing up the Khorramshahr gas station. Iranian state television even aired footage of one of the men discussing the attacks, claiming it was the first time the details had been made public.
But activists and human rights groups have raised serious concerns about the legitimacy of the convictions and the manner in which the executions were carried out. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish group based outside Iran, identified the six as Arab political prisoners who were detained during the widespread protests that swept Iran in 2019. According to Hengaw, "The six men were subjected to severe torture and coerced into giving televised ‘confessions’ under duress." The group also noted that the men were accused of having links to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, an organization that has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on oil pipelines and other infrastructure in Iran’s southwest.
Khuzestan, home to a significant Arab minority, has long been a flashpoint for ethnic tensions and unrest. The Arab population there has consistently voiced grievances against what they describe as systematic discrimination by Iran’s central government. The region has also been a hotbed for protests—in 2019 and in subsequent years—that have often been met with heavy-handed crackdowns by security forces. The latest executions have only deepened the sense of alienation and anger among Khuzestan’s Arab community, with many seeing the government’s actions as both punitive and politically motivated.
The timing of the executions is particularly notable in the context of Iran’s ongoing shadow war with Israel. After the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in June 2025, which saw Israeli strikes inside Iran and Tehran vowing retaliation against its enemies both at home and abroad, the Iranian government appears to have accelerated its use of the death penalty as a tool of both deterrence and retribution. According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, more than 1,000 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2025—a figure that may actually understate the true number, as not all executions are publicly reported.
This pace of executions, unseen since the mass killings that followed the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, has drawn sharp criticism from independent human rights experts at the United Nations. They have repeatedly warned that Iran’s use of the death penalty, particularly in cases involving alleged political crimes or links to Israel, is often marred by coerced confessions, closed-door trials, and a lack of due process. As NBC News reported, activists allege that Iran frequently relies on forced confessions, sometimes extracted under torture, to secure convictions in its most politically sensitive cases.
Iran’s judiciary has defended its actions, arguing that the men executed were responsible for the deaths of four security personnel—including two police officers and two members of the Basij paramilitary force—in attacks dating back to 2018 and 2019. The official narrative maintains that the men were acting on behalf of Israel, and that their executions were necessary to protect national security and deter further acts of violence and sabotage. In the words of the judiciary, these were "separatist terrorist elements" whose actions posed a grave threat to the stability of Khuzestan and, by extension, the entire country.
However, critics argue that the government’s heavy reliance on the death penalty is less about justice and more about sending a message—both to domestic dissidents and to foreign adversaries. The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, the group to which the executed men were allegedly linked, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the past, but human rights advocates insist that Iran’s pattern of targeting ethnic minorities and political prisoners undermines the legitimacy of its security claims. The region’s history of unrest, coupled with longstanding allegations of state discrimination, creates a volatile mix that is only exacerbated by mass executions.
Adding to the sense of crisis, Iran executed a seventh inmate on the same day—this time a man accused of killing a Sunni cleric in 2009 in the country’s Kurdistan province. This execution, though separate from the Khuzestan case, further illustrates the breadth and intensity of Iran’s current crackdown on perceived enemies, whether they are accused separatists, religious dissenters, or those simply caught up in the country’s turbulent politics.
The international response has been swift and critical. United Nations experts, as well as organizations like Iran Human Rights and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, have called on Iran to halt its executions and ensure fair trials for all detainees, especially in cases carrying the death penalty. They point to the alarming rise in executions as evidence of a broader campaign of intimidation and repression, one that risks deepening the country’s internal divisions and further isolating it on the world stage.
Still, within Iran, the government’s official stance remains resolute. Authorities continue to frame the executions as a necessary response to terrorism and foreign interference, particularly from Israel, with whom Iran has been engaged in a decades-long covert conflict. The recent direct clashes in June 2025—unprecedented in their intensity—have only hardened attitudes in Tehran, where leaders see themselves as locked in an existential struggle both at home and abroad.
As the dust settles from these latest executions, the human cost of Iran’s security policies is becoming ever more apparent. For the families of those executed, for the Arab community in Khuzestan, and for the country’s embattled civil society, the future looks uncertain. What’s clear is that the shadow of the gallows now hangs heavier over Iran than at any point in decades, with no sign yet of a reprieve.
