Supreme Leader Orders Massacre — Internet Goes DARK

Tablet displaying a 'No internet' error message with a dinosaur game — REGIME SILENCES INTERNET

Iran’s regime is executing protesters within days of their arrest, marking the deadliest crackdown on dissent the nation has witnessed in decades.

Story Snapshot

Over 24,000 protesters arrested since late December, including children as young as 14
At least 52 executions carried out in just nine days, some occurring less than a week after arrest
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directly ordered security forces to “crush protests by any means necessary”
Internet blackout imposed to conceal massacres, with death toll reaching into the thousands
Despite claims of suppression, renewed protests erupted in February across universities and western Iran

When Swift Trials Mean No Justice

Erfan Soltani owned a clothes shop in Fardis. On January 8, 2026, authorities arrested him during nationwide protests. They denied him a lawyer. Within days, officials notified him of his execution sentence.

On January 14, six days after his arrest, the regime executed him. His case exemplifies what Amnesty International calls an unprecedented weaponization of the death penalty.

Between January 5 and 14, Iranian authorities carried out at least 52 executions. The head of the judiciary issued explicit orders: show “no leniency” and impose “maximum penalties” against anyone connected to the demonstrations.

Iran escalates crackdown on dissent as arrests, executions and threats surge, observers say – ABC News via @ABC – https://t.co/iCZ4Vp4Qg7

— Woodrow Williams (@Woodrow17165268) April 20, 2026

The Architecture of Repression

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sits at the apex of this coordinated campaign. He issued direct orders to security forces to crush protests by any means necessary.

Former Iranian officials identify Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, as the operational mastermind behind the massacres.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps executed the violence on the ground. What unfolded was no spontaneous reaction but a deliberate, organized operation.

On January 3, Khamenei publicly denounced protesters as rioters. Two days later, the judiciary received marching orders for harsh penalties. The machinery of state terror began its work with ruthless efficiency.

Rasht’s Horror and the Internet Blackout

The deadliest massacres occurred on January 8 and 9. In Rasht, security forces surrounded protesters in the city’s bazaar. They set the market on fire.

When people attempted to escape or surrender, forces shot them. Survivors who fell wounded were systematically “finished off” according to documented reports.

Fire trucks arrived to help, but security forces blocked them. At least 392 people died in Rasht alone. The regime imposed a near-total internet shutdown beginning January 8, preventing documentation and information sharing. By January 16, internet activity had crept up to just two percent. The blackout served its purpose: concealing crimes from international scrutiny.

Behind Prison Walls

By January 18, authorities had detained 24,669 protesters. The arrests swept up children as young as 14. Detainees disappeared into incommunicado detention, their families left without information about their whereabouts or condition. Reports emerged of systematic torture and sexual assault in custody.

Guards injected detainees with unknown chemical substances. The “One Word” Lawyers’ Network pleaded with the international community to prevent show trials and extrajudicial executions.

Their appeals highlighted orders for “extraordinary, out-of-order proceedings” designed to rush defendants from arrest to execution. The judicial system became indistinguishable from the executioner.

A Pattern of Impunity

This crackdown didn’t emerge from nowhere. Iran’s regime has refined its suppression tactics through years of practice. During the November 2019 protests, security forces used unlawful lethal force against demonstrators. The 2022 Women, Life, Freedom uprising, sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, met similar brutality.

Authorities executed at least 11 people connected to that uprising following what Amnesty International documented as “grossly unfair trials.” One of them, Mojahed Kourkouri, was executed in June 2025.

Throughout these episodes, perpetrators faced no accountability. Impunity for previous crimes emboldened security forces to escalate their violence. The 2026 crackdown represents the logical conclusion of unchecked state terror.

The Resistance Persists

On January 21, Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi Azad announced the protests had been suppressed. The regime’s violence appeared to achieve its immediate goal.

By January 19, street demonstrations had largely ceased, though some Iranians continued chanting anti-government slogans from their homes. The celebration proved premature.

On February 14, worldwide protests in support of the protests occurred. Two days later, protest waves restarted in western Iran. By February 21, university students resumed demonstrations. The renewed unrest exposed the fundamental weakness in the regime’s strategy.

Terror can suppress dissent temporarily, but it cannot extinguish the demand for fundamental political change and respect for human rights that drives Iranians into the streets despite knowing the lethal consequences.