UN rights chief warns that more Iranians face execution over protests

RiddleMaster · 2026-02-27T10:56:10+00:00

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk urged Iran to halt death penalties amid rising executions linked to January protests. He expressed alarm over sentences issued to eight individuals and potential military escalation in the region.

RiddleMaster

2026-02-27 10:56:10

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GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Friday called for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iran, warning that dozens more people risk execution after the first death sentence linked to January mass protests was issued this week.

“I am horrified by reports that at least eight people, including two children, have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests,” Turk said in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, adding that another 30 people appeared to be at risk of the same sentence.

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A revolutionary court in Tehran issued a death sentence for an Iranian man accused of “enmity against god” which if confirmed would be the first such sentence linked to mass protests in January, a source close to the man’s family said.

Rights groups say thousands of people were killed in a crackdown on the protests, the worst domestic unrest in Iran since the era of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. During the unrest, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that he could order military action if it carried out executions.

“I am extremely alarmed about the potential for regional military escalation and its impact on civilians, and I hope the voice of reason prevails,” Turk said in the same speech.

Talks in Geneva on Thursday between the United States and Iran made progress over Tehran’s nuclear programme, mediator Oman said, but there was no sign of a breakthrough that could avert potential U.S. strikes amid a massive military buildup.

Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Friederike Heine, Kirsti Knolle

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Emma Farge

Thomson Reuters

Emma Farge reports on the U.N. beat and Swiss news from Geneva since 2019. She has produced a string of exclusives on diplomacy, the environment and global trade and covered Switzerland’s first war crimes trial. Her Reuters career started in 2009 covering oil swaps from London and she has since written about the West African Ebola outbreak, embedded with U.N. troops in north Mali and was the first reporter to enter deposed Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s estate. She co-authored a winning story for the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize on Russia’s diplomatic isolation in 2022 and was also part of a team of journalists nominated in 2012 as Pulitzer finalists in the international reporting category for coverage of the Libyan revolution. She holds a BA from Oxford University (First) and an MSc from the LSE in International Relations. She is currently on the board of the press association for UN correspondents in Geneva (ACANU).

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