20
May
2026
Watch
Repression and execution of protesters, dissidents, political prisoners and religious minorities in Iran
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in 2025 Iran executed more than 2 000 people, twice as many as the year before. There have been no similar numbers in the world for 45 years. They are not statistics. They are men, women, minors sent to the gallows for exercising their freedom of thought and speech, citizens hanged or stoned on trumped-up charges of complicity with the United States or Israel. The regime uses the gallows as an instrument of control and repression. After the January massacres, executions continue: 26 prisoners executed since March, hundreds of others waiting on death row, in many cases subjected to torture. The European Union has a duty to harshly sanction those responsible and to make every effort to stop executions and secure the release of political prisoners. It is up to us, in Parliament, to press so that no more time is wasted.