Executions surge as Iran uses Israel tensions as cover for crackdown at home

"Iran has executed a record number of prisoners while global attention has been focused on the prospect it may go to war with Israel.

Human rights observers say the Islamic Republic is using international tensions as cover while it cracks down on dissent at home.
On Wednesday, the regime carried out its largest mass execution in more than two decades, putting 29 prisoners to death in a single day. Reza Resaei, a young Kurdish-Iranian protester arrested during demonstrations in 2022, was hanged in the western city of Kermanshah.
The 34-year-old was the tenth protester to be executed over the uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22 year-old detained by morality police for supposedly not wearing a hijab in September 2022.
Ms Shojaee said the surge in the number of executions in recent days has “shocked” Iranian human rights activists.
“For the first time in the recent social movements in Iran, we have four imprisoned women activists who are sentenced to death,” she said." MS