Iran: Government Uses Cover of Regional Tensions to Crush Its Domestic Opponents
As regional hostilities continue to build, the Islamic Republic is using the cover of these growing tensions to go after its domestic critics. The government’s intensifying campaign of repression has targeted growing numbers of activists, protesters, and political prisoners, with arrests and executions soaring, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) warned today.
“We’ve seen this playbook before—the Islamic Republic uses the threat of war to strike out at its domestic critics, and the results over the years have been thousands of civilians, political opponents, and prisoners killed by the regime,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)
“Activists, protesters, political prisoners, women refusing the hijab, minority communities, and many others are in increasing danger as the authorities in Iran move to crush domestic dissent by any means, be it through imprisonment, gunning people down in the street, or hanging them,” said Ghaemi.
CHRI calls on the international community to move into a heightened state of alert regarding the fast deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, especially the soaring executions, and respond to their continuation with severe and coordinated diplomatic and economic consequences.
