Iran | Documented Figures Far Below Reality of Protester Killings; “Prison Doctors Instructed Not To Treat Injured Protesters So They’d Die”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 January 2026: Twenty-three days since the start of the nationwide protests in Iran and twelve days after the internet blackout, information and eyewitness accounts are revealing the scale of the large-scale killing of protesters by state forces. Given the magnitude of these crimes and the severe restrictions on communications, it is not currently possible to publish precise casualty figures in line with the IHRNGO’s standards, which require multi-layered verification and confirmation by at least two independent sources. For this reason, the organisation will refrain from issuing daily statistics until sufficient documentation has been obtained.

In its most recent report, based on documentation received from credible sources, IHRNGO reported the deaths of at least 3,428 protesters. This figure is meaningfully lower than eyewitness accounts and the organisation’s own assessment of the likely true number of fatalities. Estimates published by some media outlets, drawing on information reportedly received from government or hospital sources, indicate that between 5,000 and 20,000 protesters may have been killed. Meanwhile, Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, referred in a speech to “several thousand” deaths, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of Parliament, also spoke of “thousands” killed.

It is important to recall that official sources consistently report figures for state violence that are far below the reality. For example, over the past five years the Islamic Republic has officially announced only an annual average of 12 per cent of the executions that IHRNGO has verified through two independent sources.

IHRNGO continues to document state crimes committed in the suppression of the 2025 protests and urges all citizens and individuals with access to information or evidence that could help clarify the full extent of these crimes to share it with the organisation.

IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Information received from eyewitnesses, families and other citizens, together with other available evidence, indicates that the number of protesters killed may exceed even the highest media estimates. There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic has committed one of the largest mass killings of protesters in our time, and all indications are that this massacre was planned and carried out with full coordination. This suggests that these crimes were committed pursuant to a single directive from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, with the cooperation of the repressive forces, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Accountability for these crimes through the International Criminal Court, and the listing of the IRGC as an international terrorist organisation, must be treated as urgent priorities by the international community. The international community must also take very seriously the threats by Islamic Republic officials to issue and carry out death sentences against protesters, and must act to prevent another large-scale massacre, this time inside prisons.”

According to IHRNGO estimates, around 25,000 people have been arrested in relation to the protests. State media began broadcasting confessions obtained under coercion and torture of protesters within the first week of protests. This is while today, at the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, Mohseni Ejei, Head of the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary, stated that in cases where forced confessions have been aired on state television in recent days and the evidence is “this clear”, with an “explicit confession” on file, proceedings should not be “left pending” and must be dealt with “swiftly.” As IHRNGO has documented in its annual death penalty reports, such confessions are routinely used as the basis for death sentences imposed after unfair trials that lack basic due process guarantees.

At the same time, Ahmadreza Radan, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic’s police forces, said: “We will pursue the rioters and terrorists to the last person. Fortunately, many of them have been arrested. All of them confessed, confessions that included violence, murder and looting, and their cases have been opened and are being processed by the judicial authorities. Many more have been identified and we will go after them one by one and arrest them all.”

Shiraz Central Prison

According to informed IHRNGO sources, a large wave of arrests took place on 7 January in the Maliabad and Farhangian neighbourhoods of Shiraz. The detainees, estimated to be over 1,000, were transferred to unsuitable locations, including the basement of Shiraz Central (Adel Abad) Prison and the adjacent detention facility. Reports confirm that two injured teenagers who had been shot in the Farhangian neighbourhood died in the prison infirmary due to severe blood loss as a result of being denied medical treatment.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “A lot of detainees from the city of Marvdasht have been transferred to Shiraz, and many of them have pellet injuries. There are teenagers aged 16 to 18 amongst them and the physical condition of some of them is shocking. Hossein Ahmadzadeh is one of them. He has lost both eyes and his skull is filled with pellets. Kourosh Fatemi and Omid Farahani, both 16, were shot in the lower back and have been paralysed.”

The source added: “Parsa Rabiei, Mehrdad Khorshidi, Hossein Ramezanpour, Davoud Almasi and Morteza Entekhabi are among the other detained teenagers. The medical situation in the prison is so critical that one of the prison doctors, Dr Jafarzadeh, has been arrested for insisting on treating the wounded, after medical staff were instructed not to treat injured detainees so that they’d die from blood loss.”

IHRNGO sources also emphasised that at least 70 people have been killed in Marvdasht, and efforts to verify the identities of all of them are continuing. According to these reports, Shiraz Central Prison has been placed under an emergency regime for four days in recent days, prisoners have been denied outdoor time, and all telephone lines and visits have been suspended.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, January 19, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Former Florida officer who raped, murdered 11-year-old set to be executed

An execution date has been set for a former Mascotte police officer who, in May 1987, assaulted and murdered an 11-year-old girl. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Aren Duckett on Friday. He’s scheduled to be executed on March 31. It’ll be the state’s 5th execution this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Duckett was convicted in the murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee about a year after her death. According to officials, Duckett took the 11-year-old to a lake, where he sexually battered, strangled and drowned her.

‘Come on with it’: Arkansas inmate asks to hasten execution

A Faulkner County judge has scheduled an August hearing to determine whether a death row inmate can bypass his attorney’s advice, drop his remaining appeals, and hasten his execution. Scotty Ray Gardner, 65, is facing the death penalty for the 2016 killing of his girlfriend, Susan Heather Stubbs, in Conway. In letters sent to Circuit Judge Chuck Clawson and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gardner said he wants to end his legal battles, writing that he is tired of prison life and skeptical he will receive a fair hearing. “It’s simple,” Gardner wrote in a September letter. “Come on with it.”

Florida executes Billy Kearse

Florida executes man who killed Fort Pierce police officer during 1991 traffic stop Moments before receiving a lethal injection, Billy Kearse asked for forgiveness from the family of Danny Parrish, whose widow said she found peace after a "long, long 35 years.” A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop was executed Tuesday evening, becoming the third person put to death by Florida this year after a record 19 executions in 2025.

Chinese courts conclude trials of 2 criminal gangs from northern Myanmar, 16 sentenced to death

Chinese courts have concluded the trials of 2 major criminal groups based in northern Myanmar involved in telecom and online fraud, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Thursday. At a press conference held by the SPC, it was revealed that by the end of 2025, courts across the country had concluded first-instance trials of over 27,000 cases related to telecom fraud operations in northern Myanmar, with more than 41,000 returned suspects sentenced. Notably, among the trials of the so-called "4 major families" criminal gangs -- which had drawn widespread domestic and international attention -- those of the Ming and Bai groups have completed all judicial proceedings.

North Carolina | DA won't seek death penalty against woman accused of poisoning family

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (DPN) — Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Western North Carolina entrepreneur accused of poisoning her family during a Thanksgiving dinner and killing a man nearly two decades ago. During a mandatory Rule 24 hearing Thursday in Henderson County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney John Douglas Mundy announced that the state will proceed with the case against Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel, 52, as a non-capital matter. The decision removes the possibility of an execution, meaning the maximum penalty Casper-Leinenkugel now faces is life in prison without parole.

Florida | Governor DeSantis signs death warrant in 2008 murder case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael L. King, setting an execution date of March 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. King was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old North Port mother. On January 17, 2008, Michael Lee King abducted 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee from her North Port home by forcing her into his green Chevrolet Camaro. He drove her around while she was bound, including to his cousin's house to borrow tools like a shovel. King took her to his home, where he sexually battered her, then placed her in the backseat of his car. Later that evening, he drove to a remote area, shot her in the face, and buried her nude body in a shallow grave. Her remains were discovered two days later. During the crime, multiple 9-1-1 calls were made, but communication breakdowns between emergency dispatch centers delayed the response. The case drew national attention and prompted w...

Oklahoma Ends Indefinite Death Row Solitary Confinement

Every year, thousands of prisoners in the U.S. are placed in solitary confinement, where they endure isolation, abuse, and mental suffering . This practice might soon become rarer for some inmates in Oklahoma, thanks to the efforts of activists in the state. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma announced that the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester had ended the practice of indefinite solitary confinement for "the vast majority" of death row prisoners.

Florida executes Melvin Trotter

The execution of Melvin Trotter for the murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford in 1986 comes as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questions Florida's 'deeply troubling' lethal injection record. Florida has executed its second inmate of the year even as a Supreme Court justice questioned the state's “deeply troubling" record on lethal injections and how it "shrouds its executions in secrecy." Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for the 1986 murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of 4 who was on the verge of retirement when she was stabbed to death in the corner grocery store that she owned for five decades. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET.

Florida Cop-killer Billy Kearse set to be executed today

A man who confessed to fatally shooting Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish with his own service weapon during a 1991 traffic stop is scheduled to be executed starting at 6 p.m. March 3, barring a last-minute stay. Billy L. Kearse, 53, will be the third person put to death by the state this year, just one week after the execution of Melvin Trotter, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for strangling and stabbing Virgie Langford in Palmetto in 1986. The Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 12 denied a motion for a stay of execution and a motion for an extension due to the fading health and death of the father of Kearse's attorney. Attorneys for Kearse have filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, citing violations of the Sixth, Eighth and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Man convicted in 1986 murder set to become Florida's second execution of 2026

STARKE, Fla. (DPN) — A man convicted of stabbing and strangling a grocery store owner during a robbery nearly 40 years ago is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, becoming the second person executed in Florida this year. Melvin Trotter, 65, is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 killing of Virgie Langford, 70, who owned Langford’s Grocery Store in Palmetto, in southwest Florida's Manatee County.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog