UN condemns Iran's execution spree as MEK reports 2025 record
Dissident group tallies 2,013 executions through Dec. 15; U.N. adopts resolution condemning Tehran's crackdown
The United Nations adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its execution spree in the strongest terms, as a leading Iranian dissident group released a report alleging Tehran killed 2,013 Iranians between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15, 2025. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) based its tally on internal documents, saying the figure more than doubles the 975 executions counted by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for 2024, the highest annual total in years. The MEK says the spike follows a confluence of pressures: a collapsing currency, nationwide protests, factional power struggles, renewed sanctions, and fractures within Iran's leadership.
According to MEK documents provided to Fox News Digital, the total this year is the highest since the 1980s. The group ties the surge to a free-falling currency, ongoing street protests, and what it describes as political repression and internal divisions that shape the regime's response. Pezeshkian, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, 2025, condemned the United States and accused Washington of grave betrayal in relation to Iran.
A State Department spokesperson condemned Iran's continued abuse of human rights, saying the United States strongly condemns the regime's use of execution as a tool of political repression, describing torture, forced confessions, and sham trials. The spokesperson noted that innocent civilians are being used as scapegoats for the regime's military and economic failures. The department added that Washington has designated dozens of individuals and over 180 vessels in Iran's shadow fleet to deplete the regime's coffers under a policy of maximum pressure.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, told Fox News Digital that Washington should do more, faster. He said the United States has lagged behind other Western partners who have responded to Iranian human rights violations with sanctions and other measures, most recently Canada, which sanctioned four individuals after a December protest in Mashhad. Taleblu argued that the regime's repression signals its weakness and that hijab enforcement and other social controls are tools to retain an oligarchic hold on power in a post-Khamenei Iran. "The imperative for Washington to support Iranian protesters... stands," he said, adding that U.S. human rights policy toward Iran should be a constant, not a reaction to social media trends.
The MEK has urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the Iranian people's right to resist and overthrow the regime, which they claim is the only means for eliminating the country’s theocracy. On Dec. 10, the European Parliament marked International Human Rights Day by calling for action against Iran on account of its execution campaign. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the parliament and urged that all relations with the regime be conditioned on a halt to executions, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence placed on the terrorist list.
Among those sentenced to death is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and mother who the MEK says received her death sentence after a sham 10-minute trial, without her chosen legal representation. Tabari was arrested after she held a banner reading Woman, Resistance, Freedom. The MEK documents say Tabari’s case is emblematic of a broader pattern of rushed, opaque trials in which defendants face capital punishment.
The total number of executions in Iran has doubled since October. At the time, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said Iran was murdering up to nine prisoners per day, which they called an unprecedented execution spree. In response, death row prisoners staged a hunger strike. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not offer comment on the MEK report.
Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, the United Nations, Central America and antisemitism. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on X @BWBailey85.
