According to an investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Iran executed nearly 60 protesters and political dissidents between March 18 and the end of August 2026. The report, released on September 10, highlights a sharp increase in political executions since the start of a conflict between Iran and the United States. These executions have targeted individuals involved in anti-government protests, particularly those who participated in demonstrations in January 2026 and the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in 2022. HRW and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, another rights group, accuse the Iranian authorities of carrying out these executions illegally and with increasing frequency. Among the 59 people executed, 29 were arrested for participating in anti-government protests at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, and three were linked to the earlier "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. Five of these individuals were executed in public, a method often used to deter dissent. The report is based on interviews with 12 sources, including human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and former cellmates of those executed. HRW also analyzed audio recordings of prisoners and court documents from Iranian authorities. According to the organization, many of the death sentences were based on confessions obtained through torture. Bahar Saba, a senior Iran researcher at HRW, noted that some of the individuals executed were as young as 18 or 19, including Saleh Mohammadi, a wrestling champion who was hanged five weeks after his arrest, and Amir-Hossein Hatami, who received a death sentence one month after his arrest. These trials, Saba said, were conducted in a manner that was clearly unfair and too rushed to establish the guilt of the accused. The report also highlights the lack of independence in Iran’s judiciary, noting that many prisoners were denied access to independent lawyers and faced mistreatment such as violence or threats of rape. Some of the convictions were based on charges like "waging war against God" or "acts in favor of hostile states," which are outlined in a 2025 law on espionage. HRW argues that this law has been used as a tool to expedite death sentences for protesters without any evidence of espionage or collaboration with foreign powers. The organization has called for urgent and coordinated diplomatic action by United Nations members to address these repeated human rights violations. HRW warns that the true number of those facing capital punishment in Iran is likely much higher, as internet shutdowns and fear of retaliation from the regime have made it difficult to track the full scope of the issue. The report also notes that contacting activists abroad is now a punishable offense. This investigation comes as Iran’s execution rate reached its highest level since the end of the 1980s in 2025, with at least 2,113 executions recorded by the Boroumand Center. HRW suggests that the Iranian government is using these executions to suppress internal dissent and prevent any mobilization that could worsen the ongoing conflict with the United States.