When Sharif was arrested last January, he did not know that he would leave prison suffering from numerous psychological and physical problems, with a memory burdened by images of torture and the buzzing sound of execution gunfire.
Sharif, which is a pseudonym, tells Alhurra: “I experience continuous waves of fear and panic, and I cannot sleep because of nightmares. I also have severe stomach pain as a result of being subjected to intense torture.”
Despite security restrictions and the continued internet shutdown, Alhurra was able to communicate with Sharif and other detainees through a network of activists inside and outside Iran.
Sharif indicates that prison guards forced him and other detainees to take a set of medications without knowing what they were, but he is almost certain that those medications caused his stomach disorders and shortness of breath.
The Iranian Basij arrested Sharif last January during his participation in protests in Ilam province in western Iran, as part of a wave of popular demonstrations that took place in most Iranian cities in protest against deteriorating economic conditions.
“I was detained with more than 50 other detainees in a small cell. Most of the detainees with me were facing political and security charges, including cooperating with external parties and rebelling against the regime,” he says.
Under the roar of American and Israeli airstrikes and the explosions that shook Iran last March and early April, Iranian authorities carried out secret executions and practiced torture against detainees and activists in their prisons, according to international and local human rights organizations.
Statistics from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights show that Iranian authorities executed more than 615 people since the beginning of the current year up to the completion of this report.
The number of executions in Iran increased by 260 cases compared to the same period last year.
The HANA Organization says that the number of those executed in Iran during 40 days of the war reached 20 people, including nine on charges of belonging to the Iranian opposition, nine linked to last January’s protests, and two on charges of spying for Israel.
According to political activists residing inside Iran whom Alhurra contacted, in addition to executions and torture, the operations carried out by the authorities included transferring and hiding dozens of political detainees in unknown detention facilities, and despite the ceasefire, their fate remains unknown.
“Executions increased during the war. Authorities executed a number of detainees on charges of spying for Israel, without transparent legal procedures or reliable evidence. Many death sentences were issued against protesters,” says Iranian Kurdish activist Zhino Babamiri to Alhurra.
Babamiri, who resides in Europe, points out that reports she receives from a network of activists inside Iran indicate that political detainees have faced more difficult humanitarian conditions since last February than before. She notes that authorities have tightened their measures against them, imposed strict guard conditions, and prevented their families from visiting them.
The Iran Human Rights Organization revealed in its 2025 annual report on executions in Iran that the number of executions officially announced by Iran each year does not reflect the real number in the country. It indicated that in 2025, authorities announced the execution of 113 people, while at least 1,639 people were executed, meaning that less than 7% of the actual executions were publicly declared.
Iran did not stop at executing detainees during the war; since the end of last February, it has continued random arrest campaigns targeting Iranians of various backgrounds, with a greater focus on youth.
Statistics issued by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which monitors human rights violations in Iran, show that Iranian authorities arrested approximately 3,000 people during the war across different parts of Iran. The organization indicates that these arrests are still ongoing, noting at the same time that one detainee, named Hussein Ghawi from Ahvaz, died under torture.
A member of the administrative board of Hengaw, Zhila Mostajer, confirms that the first weeks of the war witnessed the execution of detainees accused of links to Israel. This wave also included the execution of protesters who had been arrested during New Year’s Eve demonstrations.
“These executions were carried out hastily. The legal procedures are unclear, and there is no information about the court that issued these rulings or the judge. We do not know whether the convicted were given the right to appoint a lawyer or not. Everything was done in secret,” Mostajer adds to Alhurra.
Mostajer warns of the Iranian authorities’ intention to carry out death sentences against the largest possible number of political and security detainees. She stresses that all prisoners whom Iran has arrested and sentenced to death on political and security charges in recent years are at risk of execution, especially those accused by the regime of links to Israel and the Mossad. She notes that those arrested during protests face the same danger at the hands of the regime.
In a report issued on April 2, the organization Human Rights Watch confirmed that Iranian authorities carried out mass arbitrary arrests against tens of thousands of protesters, including children, in addition to actual and perceived opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers, and medical personnel. Many were held in secret and unofficial detention facilities run by security and intelligence agencies and were subjected to enforced disappearance.
The organization called on United Nations member states to pressure Iranian authorities to immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained, halt executions, and implement regulations allowing for the release of prisoners or their temporary release on humanitarian grounds.
As for Sharif, he managed to leave detention at the beginning of this April in exchange for a large sum of money paid by his family to a high-ranking officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the IRGC intelligence summoned him three times over the past two weeks for further interrogation.
More than 10 Iranian detainees recently released, along with their families, confirmed to Alhurra that they suffer from medical and psychological conditions similar to Sharif’s, caused by the torture they endured in detention. A number of them also developed vision problems that they did not have before their arrest.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
