Weaponizing War: Iran’s Geopolitical Excuse for Execution

At least 1,922 people were executed in Iran in 2025, marking the highest number of publicly known executions in a decade. Since its rise to power in 1979, Iran’s clerical regime has been using execution as a tool of political control. At the beginning, the regime pursued mass executions of opposing political factions to cement its power. Today, the regime continues with the killings of political dissidents of all ages and backgrounds as a tool of fear amid growing discontent in the country. This escalation coincides with ongoing waves of protests across the country calling for regime change, with a strong internal repression of protestors from the Islamic Republic.  As external and internal criticism grow, it must be asked: How is Iran rationalizing this internal repression to the outside world? 

After war broke out between Israel and Hamas following the attacks of October 7, 2023, Iran’s known anti-Israel stance was reinforced after positioning itself as the leader of the “Axis of Resistance.” The Axis of Resistance is the informal coalition of Iran and Iranian-backed rebel groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. When Iran and Israel exchanged rocket fire on June 13, 2025, launching the Twelve-Day War, the conflict became a global focal point. For the first time, Iran was not a distant regional adversary or backing militant proxies; it was openly trading rocket attacks with its historic adversary. Several high-ranking Iranian generals were assassinated, and a series of intelligence leaks revealed how deeply Israeli operatives had penetrated the IRGC’s security apparatus. 

The brief but intense conflict fed into the regime’s long-standing narrative of insecurity, turning the external crisis into a tool of internal crackdown. The framing of political dissidents as collaborators of Israeli or Western intelligence services has allowed Iran to charge them with espionage, which under Iranian law is equivalent to the charge of “Corruption on Earth,” a vaguely defined charge that is punishable by the death penalty. Karen Kramer, Deputy Director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), explains that the application of the death penalty in Iran “routinely violates every single international law and standard regarding capital punishment […]”, this systemic disregard for international law not only legitimizes state violence but also strengthens the regime’s use of external conflict as justification for silencing internal dissent.

One victim of this internal crackdown is Amir-Hossein Mousavi, also known as James Bidin, a popular opposition account on X who regularly echoed the demands of young Iranians in Tehran following the 2022 anti-government protests. Although Mousavi is not a politician or a public figure, he is an important voice among the many young Iranians using social media as a space for resistance. The regime turned his activism into a matter of national security when he was detained in December 2024. In September 2025, Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a report exposing Israeli-linked funding for accounts supportive of the main political opposition figure to the current Iranian regime: Prince Reza Pahlavi. Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, has lived in the United States since his exile and advocates for liberal democracy in Iran. Mousavi’s account had publicly supported Pahlavi, making him a target of interest to the Iranian government. Following nearly 150 days of solitary confinement after his arrest in 2024, state television aired his forced confession alongside clips of the Haaretz report to reinforce his confession. His “confession” entailed his admitting to exchanging information with individuals linked to Israel during the Twelve-Day War, although he was arrested seven months prior to the conflict. His case was referred to Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abdolghasem Salavati, also known as the Judge of Death.

Mousavi’s case is far from an isolated incident. In the months following the Twelve-Day War, Iran’s judiciary ramped up the arrests of activists, journalists and social media users on charges of “espionage” and “collaboration with Israel.” Alongside these crackdowns, a new law was drafted that broadens the scope of espionage charges to include citizen journalism, social media activity and foreign media cooperation as perceived support for Israel, which is punishable by harsh sentences such as the death penalty. This legal escalation reflects a broader effort by the regime to codify repression under the guise of national security. This creates an unmistakable pattern: each spike in regional tension is mirrored with a surge of domestic repression. After General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a United States drone strike, executions in Iran rose by 10 per cent in the first half of 2020 compared to 2019, once again turning regional instability into internal repression. The regime justified arrests through flimsy ties to Israeli or Western media, branding dissidents as a security threat and silencing demands for reform. But behind these cases lies a calculated narrative. Iran frames its struggle not just as a battle against foreign enemies, but also against internal ones disguised as citizens. It leads many to question whether this spike in internal repression is reflective of a broader picture—one of an establishment at the brink of collapse, blaming its own citizens for its weakening military and growing unpopularity. In this climate, cases like Amir-Hossein Mousavi’s are not anomalies but reactions to a failing system that resorts to geopolitics as the main pretext for political repression. 

The regime’s survival is dependent on the manufacturing of crises beyond and within its borders to legitimize its rule and justify political repression. In the shadow of regional war, Tehran has discovered the perfect cover for domestic state violence. The regime’s grip on power does not hinge on crushing dissent wholesale, but on publicly eliminating protest leaders—a calculated display meant to deter any successors. With the continuous arrests of activists like Mousavi, little by little, the voices of the Iranian people, along with their demands and their hopes for a better future, are being silenced. The war may have lasted twelve days, but its echo continues in the cells of political prisoners who may not see a tomorrow. 

Edited by Jacob Van Bergh

Featured Image: A Tehran mural showing the Statue of Liberty and Iran behind barbed wire, symbolizing the US–Iran tensions. Graffiti on the wall of the former US Embassy to Iran, by Pawel Ryszawa is licensed under CC BY 3.0