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Iran Executes 13 Under Ceasefire Cover

2 min read

08:05UTC

Iran HRM / NetBlocks

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ConflictDeveloping

Key takeaway

The ceasefire has changed the source of danger for Iranians, not removed it.

Iran HRM (Iran Human Rights Monitor) confirmed 13 political executions in 18 days between 19 March and 6 April. Ali Fahim, a 23-year-old protest detainee, was executed at Ghezel Hesar prison on 6 April without family notice. At least 14 secret executions at Ghezel Hesar and Qom Central Prison are documented. "Secret" means no prior announcement, no family access, no judicial transparency.

The internet blackout has reached 1,008 hours (Day 42), the longest nationwide shutdown in recorded global history, longer than Myanmar's extended blackouts and North Korea's structural isolation, which operates through infrastructure absence rather than active suppression. NetBlocks confirmed connectivity at roughly 1% of normal levels. The blackout duration has grown since the casualty report and now covers the full war and Ceasefire period.

The execution pace (13 in 18 days) mirrors Amnesty International's documented pattern during the 2022-2023 protests, when authorities used periods of reduced international scrutiny to execute protest-linked detainees. The ceasefire provides the same cover . Authorities are arresting VPN sellers and sending police warning texts to users; the population celebrating a "victory" in Tehran cannot independently verify what the Ceasefire says.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

While the world watches the ceasefire talks, Iran's government has been secretly executing political prisoners — people arrested for protesting. Thirteen were killed in 18 days. One of them was 23 years old. His family was not told he would die. Iran has now cut off internet access for 1,008 hours — more than 42 days — longer than any country has ever done. With no internet, Iranians cannot learn what the ceasefire says, and cannot organise around it.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The systematic execution of protest detainees serves two functions in Iran's domestic political economy: deterrence of future protest and elimination of organised opposition networks before any political opening that a ceasefire might produce. The internet blackout serves the same dual function: it prevents protest coordination and prevents the population from learning the terms of any deal being negotiated in their name in Islamabad.

The executions also reflect the IRGC's consolidation of domestic control during the ceasefire, using the security apparatus freed from active combat operations to process a prison backlog accumulated during 2,700+ wartime arrests.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The ceasefire is providing domestic repression cover while international attention concentrates on Islamabad — a pattern that the 1988 prison massacres established as a deliberate Iranian state practice.
Immediate · Assessed
Risk
The internet blackout prevents the Iranian population from reading ceasefire terms, organising politically around any deal, or verifying whether their government's 'victory' narrative reflects what was actually agreed.
Immediate · Assessed
Precedent
At 1,008 hours, Iran's internet blackout is the longest nationally imposed shutdown in recorded history, establishing a new precedent for information control that other authoritarian governments may replicate.
Long term · Assessed

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United States

United States

Primary parallel: During the 1988 mass executions in Iran — in which between 2,800 and 5,000 political prisoners were killed in a matter of months — the killings were later attributed to a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war Ceasefire. The Ceasefire-cover pattern has a direct historical precedent in Iran's political history.

Counter-parallel: Myanmar's internet shutdowns during the 2021 post-coup crackdown — which NetBlocks tracked as prolonged but not exceeding 500 continuous hours nationwide — are the closest modern comparator. Iran's 1,008-hour blackout exceeds Myanmar's longest documented shutdown by more than double.

Consensus view: Amnesty International's Iran researcher Hadi Ghaemi and Iran Human Rights Monitor both document that the Islamic Republic uses periods of reduced international scrutiny — protest crackdowns, Ceasefire negotiations, major diplomatic events — to accelerate execution of political detainees. The 13-in-18-days pace is consistent with the 2022-2023 Mahsa Amini execution wave, when 18 executions occurred in a comparable window.

Counter-view: Iran's judiciary officially frames these executions as criminal sentences under domestic law, not political acts. From Tehran's legal perspective, Ali Fahim and others were convicted of crimes including 'enmity against God' and assault — categories that exist in Iranian law regardless of international characterisation.

Key tension: The 1,008-hour internet blackout ensures that the population whose tax revenue funds the prison system, whose sons are being executed, cannot verify who is being executed, why, or whether due process occurred. The blackout is not incidental to the executions — it is part of the same control architecture.

Sources:CNBC·Baker McKenzie

Mentions:Iran →Ali Fahim →Ghezel Hesar →NetBlocks →Iraq →Amnesty International →Mahsa Amini →Iran Human Rights →Mahsa Amini protests →Ceasefire →Tehran →Qom →negotiations →Prima →North Korea →Qom Prison →

First Reported In

Update #64 · Islamabad talks open already cracked

CNBC· 10 Apr 2026

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Different Perspectives

South Korean financial markets

South Korea, which imports virtually all its crude oil, is absorbing the war's economic transmission most acutely among non-belligerents. The second KOSPI circuit breaker in four sessions — with Samsung down over 10% and SK Hynix down 12.3% — reflects an industrial economy unable to reprice energy costs that have risen 72% in ten days. The market response indicates Korean industry cannot sustain oil above $100 per barrel without margin compression across manufacturing, semiconductors, and shipping.

Migrant worker communities in the Gulf

The first confirmed civilian deaths in Saudi Arabia — one Indian and one Bangladeshi killed, twelve Bangladeshis wounded — fell on communities with no voice in the military decisions that placed them in harm's way. Migrant workers live near military installations because that housing is affordable, not by choice. Bangladesh and India face the dilemma of needing to protect nationals who cannot easily leave a war zone while depending on Gulf remittances that fund a substantial share of their domestic economies.

Azerbaijan — President Ilham Aliyev

Aliyev treats the Nakhchivan strikes as a direct act of war against Azerbaijani sovereignty, placing armed forces on full combat readiness and demanding an Iranian explanation. The response is calibrated to maximise international sympathy while stopping short of military retaliation — Baku cannot fight Iran alone and needs either Turkish or NATO backing to credibly deter further strikes.

Oil-importing nations (Japan, South Korea, India)

The Hormuz closure is an existential threat. Japan, South Korea, and India receive the majority of their crude through the strait — they will bear the heaviest economic cost of a war they had no part in.

Global South governments (Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa)

Neutrality was possible when the targets were military. 148 dead schoolgirls made it impossible — no government can explain that away to its own citizens.

Turkey

Has absorbed three Iranian ballistic missile interceptions since 4 March without invoking NATO Article 5 consultation. Each incident narrows Ankara's political room to continue absorbing without Alliance-level response.