Amnesty International: 6,000+ Arbitrarily Arrested, 39+ Political Executions Since February 28 Strikes

Amnesty International released a major report on May 28, 2026 documenting Iran's escalating wartime crackdown on dissent. Since the US-Israeli strikes on February 28, Iranian authorities had arbitrarily arrested more than 6,000 people — including protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, and members of ethnic and religious minorities. Iran's police chief announced on May 17 that more than 6,500 'traitors and spies' had been detained since February 28. At least 39 political executions had been carried out since the conflict began, with the actual figure likely higher as the regime keeps execution numbers secret. Amnesty documented expedited prosecutions on capital charges, forced 'confessions' extracted under torture, enforced disappearances, and sham trials. Women were disproportionately targeted: the execution of Asma Zarei in Ardabil prison brought the number of women executed in 2026 to twelve. The report noted that the regime had dramatically escalated repression 'under the pretext of wartime conditions.' The Baloch minority faced particularly severe targeting — Iran HRM documented a pattern shifting from intermittent to systematic elimination policy in Sistan-Baluchestan province, combining mass executions with economic deprivation as tools of control. The report connected this surge to the 2025 figure of 2,159 executions (the highest since 1981), with Iran remaining the primary driver of global execution rates reaching a 44-year high.