ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran has carried out at least 21 executions since the onset of the US-Israeli war in Iran late February, the UN human rights office reported on Wednesday, as Tehran continues crackdown on dissent through national security related charges.

“At least 21 individuals have been executed and thousands of others arrested” since the launch of the war in the Middle East, read a UN report, citing human rights chief Volker Turk. 

At least nine of those executed were charged with alleged connection to the January 2026 protests, ten for the purported involvement in opposition groups, while two others were executed on espionage charges.

In addition to executions, the report estimated that more than 4,000 individuals have faced arrest on national security related charges, which has a “broad and vague definition” in Iran that puts many at risk of capital punishment, according to the international body.

“Conditions of detention in Iran’s prisons are dire,” the chief said, adding that “detainees suffer from severe overcrowding and acute shortages of food, water, hygiene supplies, medicine and are denied medical care.”

The official called on the Iranian authorities to halt “all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained.”

Another confrontative measure against dissent has been the mass confiscation of assets belonging to more than 600 Iranians, majority living abroad, over charges of treason and supporting hostile actors against the state.

Iran’s chief justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei on Tuesday said that the seizure of assets belonging to the “enemy” collaborators is required by law, and the confiscated amount will be redistributed to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by the war.