At least 841 people have been executed in Iran since the start of the year, the UN said Friday, decrying “a systematic pattern of using the death penalty as a tool of state intimidation”.

The United Nations’ human rights office said there had been a “major increase in executions” by Tehran during the first half of 2025.

“Iranian authorities have executed at least 841 people since the beginning of the year,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

“The real situation might be different,” she added. “It might be worse, given the lack of transparency.”

In July alone, she said, Iran had executed at least 110 individuals — twice the number of people executed in July 2024.

READ ALSO:Why Nigeria Needs Female President – Presidential Aspirant

“The high number of executions indicates a systematic pattern of using the death penalty as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities and migrants,” Shamdasani added.

She cited the executions of Afghan nationals, and of Baluch, Kurdish, and Arab citizens.

In the first six months of the year, at least 289 people were executed for drug-related offences.

Shamdasani said the pattern witnessed across multiple countries showed that when their governments perceive threats to their grip on public order, they become increasingly repressive and less tolerant of dissent.

– Hangings before children –

The spokeswoman in particular criticised the staging of public executions in Iran. The rights office documented seven such cases since the beginning of the year — some reportedly in front of children.

READ ALSO:We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

“Public executions add an extra layer of outrage upon human dignity… not only on the dignity of the people concerned — the people who are executed — but also on all those who have to bear witness,” she said.

“The psychological trauma of bearing witness to somebody being hanged in public, particularly for children, is unacceptable.”

The UN human rights office said there were serious concerns over due process in capital punishment cases.

“What we are particularly worried about is that a lot of these death sentences are imposed based on vague laws,” the spokeswoman said, such as charges of enmity against God.

Shamdasani said that 11 individuals were currently facing “imminent execution” in Iran, including six charged with “armed rebellion” due to alleged membership of the exiled opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MEK).

READ ALSO:US Struck Iran With B-2 Bombers, Submarine-launched Missiles – Top US General

The other five had been sentenced to death over their participation in large-scale protests in 2022, she said. Iran’s supreme court last week confirmed the death sentence against workers’ rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, she added.

The UN rights office was urging Iran’s government “not to implement the death penalty against these and other individuals on death row”, Shamdasani said.

“The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity,” she added.

“It creates an unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. It should never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law.”

UN human rights chief Volker Turk is calling on Tehran to impose a moratorium on the application of capital punishment, as a step towards abolition.
AFP

Moscow on Friday slammed Emmanuel Macron for what it called “vulgar insults”, after the French president called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “predator” and “ogre”.

Macron warned European leaders not to trust Putin in an interview with the LCI broadcaster last week.

“For his own survival, (he) needs to keep eating … That means he is a predator, an ogre at our gates,” Macron said.

READ ALSO:Russia Claims More Ukraine Land As Hopes For Summit Fade

He made the comments after a landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump along with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies in Washington.

Russia’s foreign ministry slammed the remarks: “They cross the line of not just reasonableness, but decency, becoming vulgar insults against Russia and its people,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a televised briefing.

Moscow has long criticised France’s support for Ukraine and accused Paris of provoking the conflict. France has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022, supplying weapons and financial aid.

AFP

US President Donald Trump has moved to block $5 billion of congressionally-approved foreign aid, the White House said Friday — raising the likelihood of a federal shutdown as Democrats oppose the policy.

The cuts “affect programs of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development,” Trump wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives.

The Republican president “will always put AMERICA FIRST,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said on social media, releasing a copy of the letter.

The Trump administration has effectively dismantled USAID, the chief US foreign aid agency, since taking office.

READ ALSO:Russia Hits Ukraine With ‘Massive’ Deadly Overnight Strikes

Founded in 1961 as John F. Kennedy sought to leverage aid to win over the developing world in the Cold War, USAID has been incorporated into the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio slashed 85 percent of its programming.

Trump, after taking office for the second time in January, launched a sweeping campaign to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress, but need Democrat support in the Senate to pass new spending laws.

READ ALSO:Two US Pastors Arrested In $50m Human Trafficking, Fraud Case

Trump, deploying a little-tested legislative tactic, has sought to claw back the spending late in the fiscal year so that Congress may not have time to vote before the funding expires next month.

Democrats have warned that any attempt to reverse funding already approved by Congress would end any negotiations to avoid budgetary paralysis, the so-called shutdown, after September 30.

The United States last averted shutdown, with hours to spare, in March.

Shutdowns are rare but disruptive and costly, as everyday functions like food inspections halt, and parks, monuments and federal buildings shut up shop.