Executions Continue As Iranian Regime Faces Sanctions
From the minute that U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s mullahs have been trying to play hardball, hoping that this administration would eventually back down. However, his 12 demands for the Iranian regime include addressing human rights issues, which the regime has failed to do.
One particular area of concern is the number of executions in Iran. The country’s legal system is full of corruption and many of the basic rights accorded individuals under international law are routinely ignored. Lawyers or any legal representation is absent, and individuals who are arrested may sit in prison for years before coming to trial, but that may last mere minutes before they are given a long sentence.
Prison conditions are harsh and many of the basic necessities are not available. Executions are also used as the sentence for even minor crimes, including drug offenses, which is also a violation of international law.

Hangings in Prisons Are Common
Regardless of the charges, hangings are often held in public, where others can see the execution for themselves. On August 26, a man who was charged with murder was hanged in the prison. The Iranian authorities claim the sentence was upheld after a judicial investigation.
These hangings have become part of the routine fabric of life in Iran’s judicial system. Executions may be completed and then quietly hushed up by the state media, essentially a way for the Iranian regime to get rid of activists and those deemed a threat to the survival of the mullahs and their power.
In Karaj’s Rajai Shahr Prison, at least two death row prisoners were executed on August 29. One of the men had been charged with armed drug trafficking, which resulted in a death sentence.
One young man had his death sentence confirmed for belonging to an outlawed Kurdish nationalist group and for allegedly pulling a gun on a member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The fate of Ramin Hossein Panahi is unknown to his family at this time. If the prisoners protest using hunger strikes, then they are put into solitary confinement, which is what happened to Ramin. He was due to be executed on Monday, but there are reports that he may have been injured and transferred to a hospital in Tehran.
“We, as the family of Ramin, don’t know whether he is dead or alive,” said his brother. He also noted that the family was updating the European Parliament on his brother’s condition. Efforts are ongoing to prevent his execution.
Prison Life Full of Inhuman Treatment
For those individuals being held in Iranian prisons, the conditions are harsh. Prisoners are held without access to necessities, even being welded into an area to stop any protests. Others are denied access to lawyers. Some prisoners who have protested faced attacks by the Iranian guards in the prisons.
Medical care is also routinely denied. As the regime faces the realities of fresh sanctions and a hardline from the U.S., it is clear that the regime might be finally called to account for these human rights abuses.