When the Islamic Republic faces a crisis, whether domestic dissent or foreign conflict, it does not respond with reform or reconciliation. It turns inward, directing its fiercest blows against the Iranian people. This is not a passing phase but the core of its survival: as long as the regime endures, so will the machinery of repression. From its founding, the Islamic Republic has treated violence against Iranians not as a last resort but as a governing right it will exercise indefinitely. This violence has crescendoed in the months leading up the 12-Day War with Israel and the months that have followed. US-based Abdorrahman Boroudmand Center for Human Rights reported that the Islamic Republic has executed 730 people so far in 2025, with 102 people executed in July alone. This brutal surge notably came under the administration of a so-called “reformist” president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and aligned with the strategy of terrorizing the general public as Tehran reeled from domestic unrest and geared up for military confrontation with the U.S. and Israel. The war, short but deeply humiliating for the clerical establishment, has unleashed a new wave of paranoia, resulting in intensified crackdowns and what can only be described as judicial murder. Charges like moharebeh (waging war against Allah) and Ifsad-e-filarz (spreading corruption on the Earth) are handed out in trials of political prisoners, which are often rushed. The legal criteria of these alleged political “crimes” are so vaguely defined that they can encompass anything from peaceful protest to writing an article. The results are sham trials and arbitrary death sentences masquerading as judicial verdicts. Following the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in late 2022, regime forces set off a wave of executions to tighten their grasp on Iranians. In 2023, the number of executions increased 48 percent from the previous year, and 172 percent from 2021. According to Amnesty International, 64 percent of those who were executed in 2023 were killed for “crimes” relating to freedom of expression, religion, or belief. This has become especially pronounced since the regime’s latest confrontation with Israel. The 12-Day War exposed deep cracks in the regime’s military credibility and internal control, and in its aftermath, the Islamic Republic has gone on a spree of executions while justifying it under a banner of national security. Norway-based Iran Human Rights reports that 21 executions took place during the conflict itself, and many of those who were targeted were from marginalized communities. Three days after Israel had begun its military operation against IRGC targets, a court in Zahedan sentenced two young men to death on charges of “waging war against Allah” and “spreading corruption on Earth” for their involvement in 2022 protests. A third Iranian, who was only 16 when he was arrested, was tried on the same day. His verdict is still pending. After the post-war crackdown, the regime’s parliament approved a sweeping new “espionage” bill which would redefine “collaboration with hostile states” to include social media posts, contacts with foreign media, and anything it considers “ideological alignment” with adversaries, all punishable by death. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has condemned the legislation and urged its annulment, warning that it would expose countless Iranians, including dual nationals, to arbitrary detention and death. One member of Parliament, defending the bill, openly declared that it would give security forces “a freer hand.” Media directly affiliated with the regime have also made their intentions very clear. In a recent article, IRGC-run Fars News Agency stated that those currently detained and accused of espionage are “deserving of execution in the style of 1988,” referring to the regime’s mass execution of thousands of political prisoners at the direction of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. The piece praised the massacre as a “brilliant chapter” in the Islamic Republic’s history, signaling a return to such mass-scale repression and state murder. The numbers are staggering. In 2023, the Islamic Republic executed 853 people. In 2024, that number rose to 901, the highest figure in nearly a decade. According to Amnesty International, the Islamic Republic alone accounted for 64 percent of all known executions globally in 2024. This year’s pace suggests 2025 could surpass all previous years, as the increase this year in four months compared to last year is already at 75 percent. The Islamic Republic in Iran is now the world’s second-largest executioner, behind only China; however, the Islamic Republic leads globally in executions per capita. The international community can no longer claim ignorance. Every day that this regime remains in power, more Iranians are executed, not as punishment, but as performance. Each death sentence and each execution are part of a systematic war against dissent, democracy, and human dignity. The Islamic Republic is not content to rule through coercion alone; it must kill to survive. Until the Islamic Republic is dismantled, its internal war on Iranians will run unabated. Every name added to the growing list of the executed, whether branded a drug trafficker, an apostate, or a spy, is a casualty of a state that knows no justice and fears its own people.