Executions in the Shadows of Silence; Rise in Executions of Protesters During Widespread Internet Outage

The rise in executions amid internet blackout is a hidden process of eliminating protesters through hastily issued death sentences, suspicious confessions, and suppressions kept from the eyes of the world.

While global attention is focused on military tensions between Iran, the United States, and Israel, multiple human rights reports reveal a disturbing picture from within Iran: “The covert and hastily executed death sentences for protesters, even as internet access is restricted and the country’s communication with the outside world is tightly controlled.”

According to these reports, in recent days, several detainees from the December protests have been executed in Qazlhassar Prison in Karaj without transparent notification and without observing the most basic legal rights. Among these individuals is “Ali Fahim,” a 23-year-old youth who was secretly hanged this morning, Monday, April 6, 2026, without the right to a final visit with family members.

Just one day before, two others named “Mohammad Amin Biglari,” a 19-year-old student, and “Shahin Vahedparast-Kolor,” were executed under similar circumstances and without prior notice to their families. A process that shows the execution of these sentences is not only non-transparent, but is systematically hidden from public view.

A common feature of these cases is the unusual speed of judicial review and issuance of verdicts. These individuals were tried in a Revolutionary Court only a few weeks after their arrest and under serious charges including “enmity against God, corruption on earth, setting fire to public facilities and gatherings, and conspiracy to commit crimes against internal and external security,” and were sentenced to death.

While international standards require such cases to undergo careful examination, full access to lawyers, and sufficient time for defense, reports indicate that even appointed lawyers have been denied access to the case file and the ability to defend.

In one of these cases, the lawyer of one of the accused stated: “We were not given permission to review the case file and were denied the opportunity to defend.”

Additionally, serious ambiguities have been raised regarding the confessions of the accused; including that the confessions presented in the case are neither transparent nor clear about under what conditions they were obtained.

Human rights organizations emphasize that this process is not merely the execution of law, but the deliberate use of capital punishment to instill fear in society. According to these organizations, the execution of a death sentence only a few months after arrest, especially in cases with widespread ambiguities, is a “gross violation of the right to a fair trial.”

In this regard, it has been stressed: “This haste in a non-transparent case demonstrates the instrumental use of capital punishment to advance a policy of political retaliation.”

Such actions, particularly when the country is faced with external crises, can be seen as an attempt to control the domestic environment and prevent the formation of new protests.

A key point here is the coincidence of these executions with widespread internet restrictions. The severe reduction in access to information and disruption of communications has effectively eliminated the possibility of independent reporting and created conditions for these sentences to be carried out without immediate international reaction.

This pattern has been observed before at critical junctures: cutting off communication with the world and then implementing suppressive policies in news silence.

Alongside the executions, other reports have been published of deaths of detainees under torture. Including “Hossein Ghavi,” a 28-year-old youth from Ahvaz who, after being detained by security forces, lost his life in custody under torture.

The charges against him included “filming of bombed areas” and “contact with persons outside the country,” charges that have repeatedly been used as tools to suppress citizens. This is while he was a person with disabilities and the sole breadwinner of his family.

The totality of these events presents a clear picture of a concerning pattern: “Widespread arrests, non-transparent trials, suspicious confessions, and ultimately executions carried out in silence and without knowledge.”

In such circumstances, this fundamental question is raised: “Is this process anything other than the systematic elimination of protesters and the creation of terror in society?”

What is happening in Iran today goes beyond the execution of judicial verdicts; it is a cycle of repression that continues in darkness and in the shadow of communication restrictions.

Covert executions, deprivation of the right to defend, and deaths in detention centers all show that human lives in this process are determined not on the basis of justice, but within the framework of political considerations.

And perhaps the most important reality is this: “When voices are silenced, truth too is easily sacrificed.”