The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran announced that official communications between her and other UN experts and Iran’s regime show that the pattern of unfair trials, forced confessions, and inhumane detention conditions following the January uprising has not only continued but is being repeated on a broader scale.
Mai Sato wrote in a message on the social media platform X that in the weeks leading up to the nationwide protests that began on December 28, 2025, she, along with other United Nations experts, formally corresponded with Iran’s regime regarding three specific issues.
در هفتههای منتهی به اعتراضاتی که از هفتم دیماه ۱۴۰۴ آغاز شد، همراه با کارشناسان سازمان ملل متحد، درمورد سه موضوع با جمهوری اسلامی ایران مکاتباتی رسمی داشتیم:
۱) احسان فریدی، دانشجوی مهندسی مکانیک که با اتهام «افساد فیالارض» به اعدام محکوم شده است. صدور این حکم درپی محاکمهای…
— Mai Sato (@drmaisato) February 12, 2026
According to Sato, the first case concerns Ehsan Faridi, a mechanical engineering student sentenced to death on the charge of “corruption on earth.” She said the verdict was based on reports by security agencies, and the indictment was drafted by a prosecutor’s office whose head was later dismissed over corruption. The second case involves Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, a 67-year-old electrical engineer sentenced to death on the charge of “armed rebellion” (baghi). The ruling was issued in a trial lasting less than 10 minutes, and according to Sato, the main evidence against her was a piece of cloth bearing a protest slogan. The third focus of the correspondence concerned conditions in prisons such as Qarchak, Qezel Hesar, Sheiban, and Lakan, including reports of deaths in custody, torture, executions without prior notice, and denial of contact with family members.
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According to the Special Rapporteur, officials of Iran’s regime described the sources of the reports as “uninformed” or “biased with a hostile approach” in their responses and insisted that the judicial proceedings were entirely lawful. However, Sato emphasized that these communications, sent in November 2025, remain significant because the risk of execution for Faridi and Tabari persists, and the patterns of fair trial violations documented in those cases are now being repeated on a broader scale following the nationwide protests.
She also reported receiving accounts of forced confessions from protesters and warned that prisons previously documented for abusive conditions may now be holding newly detained individuals. Sato stressed that there is still no precise data on the number of detainees, their places of detention, the number of death sentences issued, or the number of executions carried out. According to her, the official government figure for those killed exceeds 3,000, while reports from civil society organizations indicate higher numbers.
In conclusion, the Special Rapporteur referred to the human dimension behind these statistics, mentioning the case of a teenager killed during the protests who had written in a diary about the start of the new school year and hope for “a bright future.” She said this account shows that behind every number lies a life and an unfinished dream.
