‘Architects’ of Iran’s brutal Woman, Life, Freedom crackdown must face intl justice, Amnesty says

The 87 “architects” of the Islamic Republic’s brutal crackdown on the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests must face international justice to deter the regime from carrying out similar acts of violent suppression in the future, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death and the day the NGO released a more than 1,000-page report documenting how Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity.

Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, was arrested by Tehran’s morality police on September 13, 2022, for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. She collapsed at the Vozara Detention Center and fell into a coma. She died three days later, on September 16, triggering the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. The UN previously reported that Amini was subjected to physical violence that led to her death in custody.

The Amnesty report, Architects of Atrocities: State Machinery Orchestrating Crimes Against Humanity in Iran’s 2022 Woman Life Freedom Uprising, found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity to suppress the demonstrations. These crimes include murder, torture, enforced disappearance, imprisonment, rape, and persecution on political, gender, ethnic, and religious grounds.

Amnesty documented the deaths of 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, during the uprising. The organization said most of those killed were killed by security forces during protest dispersals between September and December 2022, while others died in custody, after release from custody, or in suspicious circumstances suggesting state responsibility.

The figure is lower than the 551 deaths documented by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, which described 551 as a “credible figure,” including as many as 49 women and 68 children.

Amnesty points to long-standing pattern of Iranian cover-ups

Tehran acknowledged the deaths of 202 individuals, most of whom it claimed were killed by “rioters” or “armed terrorists,” which Amnesty noted was consistent with long-standing patterns of denial and cover-ups by the Iranian regime.

Several of the 87 officials identified by Amnesty as warranting criminal investigation have already been killed by Israel or the United States, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and former head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri.

However, the report also identifies officials who remain in positions of power, including IRGC head Ahmad Vahidi, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Majid Mir-Ahmadi, Tehran IRGC Commander Hassan Hassanzadeh and Tehran Deputy Prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari.

“This investigation exposes the layers of command and coordination behind the Iranian authorities’ deadly protest crackdowns. The agents on the streets operated within a hierarchical and coordinated chain of command linking them to officials who directed, enabled, facilitated and supported crimes committed on a massive scale,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.  “The officials named remain beyond the reach of justice in Iran. Most remain in positions from which they can unleash further deadly repression, while some even climbed the chain of command after the crimes against humanity in 2022. The cost of continued impunity has been devastating. It is beyond time to establish an international criminal justice mechanism for Iran before another protest massacre.”

The report was based on interviews with 270 people, including protesters, former detainees, relatives of those killed or detained, eyewitnesses, lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists and medical workers. Amnesty also analyzed more than 2,000 videos and extensive documentary evidence, including official statements, leaked official documents, prosecution orders, court verdicts and forensic records.

Amnesty said it wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader and senior security officials to share its findings, but had received no response by the time of publication.

Amnesty expands call for justice to January 2026 protests

In addition to calling for international criminal justice mechanisms to hold Iranian officials accountable for crimes against humanity committed in 2022, Amnesty called for an international justice mechanism to address the large-scale protest killings of January 2026.

The IRGC and the Police Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FARAJA) were identified as the two main security forces that led lethal protest dispersals while implementing state policy devised through the Supreme National Security Council, State Security Council and provincial and county security councils.

FARAJA and IRGC agents repeatedly fired into crowds using military-grade assault rifles, handguns and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, Amnesty reported, matching accounts shared with The Jerusalem Post.

On Wednesday, Iranian nurse Yasser Fattahi, who treated wounded protesters, told The Post that security forces shot his father in the leg as he attempted to reach a young woman who had been shot and was not moving. Fattahi’s father, Jowhar, later died of his wounds.

The NGO also found that the forces chased fleeing protesters and bystanders, fatally shooting many at close range despite their victims posing no threat.

The documents, leaked and official, analyzed by Amnesty also revealed that Tehran has instructed security forces to issue a “firm and severe” response to the protesters, with one leaked order revealing that forces were specifically instructed to “respond mercilessly and go as far as causing death.”

The Baluchi and Kurdish communities were those primarily affected by the lethal repression, accounting for 62% of the recorded victims despite representing only 5% and 10-15% of the country’s population.

Amnesty details deadly crackdowns in Kurdish and Baluchi regions

Amnesty confirmed the unlawful killing of 106 Baluchi protesters and bystanders, including 20 children, by security forces in Sistan and Baluchistan province. The organization also documented the unlawful killing of 95 Kurdish protesters and bystanders, including 13 children, in the context of protest dispersals or in militarized areas near protests across 17 counties in Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan provinces.

Most of the victims were fatally shot, though others were beaten to death, struck by tear gas canisters or deliberately run over by security force vehicles.

“The extensive evidence gathered and analyzed in our report leaves no doubt: Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity to crush the 2022 Woman Life Freedom uprising. They waged a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population demanding dignity, human rights and fundamental political change, pursuant to a state policy of using lethal force to obliterate dissent,” said Callamard. “Our report also unveils how crimes against humanity in Iran are sustained by an architecture of impunity built into the country’s constitutional, legislative, political and judicial frameworks. The horrifying result has been intensifying cycles of mass protest killings, culminating in the massacres of thousands of protesters within just 48 hours on 8-9 January 2026. The UN General Assembly must end the unconscionable normalization of mass protest killings in Iran and create an international criminal justice mechanism aimed at prosecuting those most implicated in crimes against humanity.

While condemning the Israeli and American attacks on Iran, Callamard insisted that Iranians are now facing both brutal repression and persecution from the regime and are being made to bear “the human cost of unlawful military action.”