Iran executes record 2025 tally, MEK says as U.N. condemns crackdown

Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) says 2,013 Iranians were executed in 2025 through Dec. 15, a rate that would set a new record for the Islamic Republic, according to documents it provided to Fox News Digital. The United Nations counted 975 executions in 2024, the highest annual figure the U.N. Office for Human Rights has recorded since 2015. The MEK says the surge is linked to a free-falling currency, broad protests, internal power struggles, renewed sanctions and fractures among Iran’s leaders.

MEK officials say the 2025 total marks the highest since the 1980s, and they point to currency collapse, nationwide protests, factional power struggles, snapback sanctions and fractures among leaders as drivers. Among those named is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and mother who MEK says was sentenced after a sham 10-minute trial without her chosen legal representation, simply for holding a banner reading “Woman, Resistance, Freedom.” The MEK notes that total executions in Iran have doubled since October, and the U.N. has warned that Iran was murdering up to nine prisoners a day at times, which prompted hunger strikes by death-row inmates.

Pezeshkian addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, 2025, and accused the United States of a grave betrayal at the world body, a remark highlighted in contemporary reporting on his UN remarks in New York.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department condemned Tehran’s human-rights record, saying, 'We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s use of execution as a tool of political repression. For decades, the regime has subjected Iranians to torture, forced confessions, and sham trials, resulting in unlawful executions. Today, innocent civilians are being used as scapegoats for the regime’s military and economic failures.' The spokesperson added that Washington has renewed the policy of maximum pressure, noting that since January the United States has designated dozens of people and over 180 vessels in Iran’s shadow fleet to deplete the regime’s coffers.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, told Fox News Digital that there are more steps needed from Washington. He said the U.S. has 'been lagging behind' other Western partners who have responded with sanctions and other measures, most recently Canada, which sanctioned four individuals after a protest in Mashhad in December. 'The lack of practical measures to support the Iranian people is a strategic own goal,' Taleblu said. He noted that Iran 'arrested over 21,000 people' following the June 12-Day War and described political repression as broader than ever, with hijab policies used to project social leniency while the regime seeks to retain its oligarchic grip in a post-Khamenei Iran.

Taleblu also outlined a potential path for U.S. messaging. He suggested that in March, during a Nowruz address by a former administration, the United States could 'give an homage to the most pro-American, the most pro-Israeli population in the heartland of the Muslim Middle East' as part of a broader strategy to maintain pressure while avoiding empty rhetoric. He stressed that U.S. human-rights policy toward Iran should be constant and not limited to social-media posts celebrating a trajectory toward a failed state, arguing that the Iranian public is broadly opposed to the regime and that sustained policy is needed to support them.

The MEK has urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and overthrow the regime, arguing that this is the only sure path to ending the theocracy. On Dec. 10, the European Parliament marked International Human Rights Day by calling for action against Iran over its execution campaign. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the Parliament with concerns that Iran is attempting to crush dissent and urged that all relations with the regime be conditioned on halting executions, with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence placed on the terrorist list.

Amid this pressure, Iran faces ongoing protests, a collapsing currency and a crackdown on dissent. The MEK has urged the United States and allies to recognize Iranians’ right to resist and to support a broader effort to topple the regime, a stance echoed by other dissident groups in exile. The U.N. and rights advocates say the scale of executions remains a defining feature of Tehran’s crackdown on dissent, even as the regime seeks to present a facade of social reform as a means of stabilizing its grip on power.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment on the MEK report, and observers say the international community remains divided on how to address Tehran’s rights record while balancing regional tensions.