Hundreds killed in Iran protests, UN rights office says
UN human rights chief ‘horrified’ by Iran’s security forces’ escalating violence against peaceful protesters; The UN cited its own sources as saying hundreds of people have been killed so far.
The Islamic Republic’s religious authorities are facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, and on Sunday a human rights group said the unrest had killed more than 500 people.
An Iranian official said Tuesday it was higher, around 2,000.
“This horrific cycle of violence cannot continue. The Iranian people and their demands for fairness, equality and fairness must be heard,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement read Tuesday by U.N. rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence. he said.
Asked to comment on the extent of the killings, Laurence, citing United Nations sources in Iran, said: “The number we are hearing about is in the hundreds.”
Turk also expressed concern that the death penalty could be applied to thousands of protesters arrested.
The unrest led US President Donald Trump to reiterate his threat to take military action on behalf of protesters in Iran.
Laurence said of a possible US intervention: “There are concerns that the protests are being instrumentalized and should not be instrumentalized by anyone.”
