Iran has executed at least 21 people and detained more than 4,000 since the outbreak of war in late February, the United Nations Human Rights Office warned on Wednesday, describing a sharp escalation in repression that includes torture, forced disappearances and mock executions. The findings have drawn renewed international attention to the plight of political prisoners in Iran, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, whose family says her deteriorating health in prison amounts to a death sentence.

In a statement issued from Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said at least nine of those executed had been connected to protests that took place in January 2026, ten were put to death for alleged membership of opposition or hostile groups, and two were executed on espionage charges. All executions occurred after US and Israeli strikes on Iran began on 28 February — the strikes that triggered the current conflict. More than 4,000 people have been detained on national security charges since 9 March, the office said, with ethnic and religious minorities disproportionately among those targeted. Many detainees have reportedly been subjected to forced disappearances, torture, coerced confessions — sometimes televised — and simulated executions.