MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
As the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran deadlocks into competing blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's government has continued to execute prisoners, people arrested after anti-government protests in January. Human rights groups say at least 7,000 people were killed during those protests. Some 50,000 were taken into custody. Many of them are now facing charges that carry the death penalty. According to the United Nations, at least 21 political prisoners have been executed since the start of the war. Human rights groups say many were forced to confess under torture. But as reporter Durrie Bouscaren finds, some protesters will never have their day in court. And a warning, this story includes descriptions of violence.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: In January, Sekhavat Salimi's son, Mohammad Ali, went out to protest the government. He never came back.
SEKHAVAT SALIMI: (Speaking Farsi).
BOUSCAREN: Salimi says he spent days looking for his son in the morgues of Tehran. Finally, out of desperation and risking arrest, he posted the whole story in this video on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SALIMI: (Speaking Farsi).
BOUSCAREN: "There's no sign of him. I don't know what to do anymore," he says. He fears his son is dead. Activists who are following the cases of political prisoners in Iran say this is a common story.
SHIVA MAHBOBI: They've been left behind closed door. Most of the prisoners - they do not have any communication with family or, if they do, maybe a few second.
BOUSCAREN: Shiva Mahbobi is spokesperson for one of the groups, the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran. Mahbobi's updates trickle in through a network of activists on the ground with Starlink satellite connections or other ways to get online. They're in touch with family members, lawyers, even officials working at morgues.
MAHBOBI: As you know, in Tehran, lots of explosion, and the prisoners are left in their room or solitary confinement, so there is no shelter.
BOUSCAREN: At the beginning of the war, the Iranian government cut off the internet, making it almost impossible to get online without Starlink. Mahbobi's contacts tell her that supplies of food and medicine are low in the prisons. As a former political prisoner herself, she fears the regime is taking advantage of the moment.
MAHBOBI: Because the regime is so powerless and angry because of the attack, they're taking revenge on people.
BOUSCAREN: Over the past weeks, Iranian authorities have continued to imprison people accused of defying the government, for owning Starlink devices, speaking with foreign news organizations or even celebrating airstrikes.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Farsi).
BOUSCAREN: And that is why NPR is not sharing this young woman's name or the city where she lives. Her close friend is a musician who was arrested after the protests in January. His family only knows he's alive because he was able to make a 15-second phone call to his mother.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Farsi).
BOUSCAREN: She says his family doesn't even know which prison he's being held in.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Farsi).
BOUSCAREN: "To be honest," she says, "we're afraid they might execute him."
BAHAR GHANDEHARI: Authorities are significantly equating any sort of dissent to enemy of the state and espionage.
BOUSCAREN: Bahar Ghandehari is the director of advocacy for the U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. She says that of the 50,000 people who were arrested after the January massacres, several thousand simply disappeared into the system.
GHANDEHARI: Just seeing this repeated pattern of people going in custody and coming out dead.
BOUSCAREN: Human rights groups are investigating several cases of protesters who died in prison. Their bodies were returned to their families with signs of torture or gunshots to the forehead. NPR also spoke to two families who recounted the same kind of story. Ghandehari's organization highlighted the case of 33-year-old fitness coach Ali Rahbar, who was alive and healthy when he was arrested at a protest in January. Weeks later, his family was called to pick up his body.
GHANDEHARI: The family was not given the right to examine the body, to even see the body, to see what happened. The burial happened under, you know, state watch.
BOUSCAREN: Ghandehari believes this was an attempt to hide evidence of Rahbar's torture. An Iranian news outlet close to the judiciary called coverage of Rahbar's death fake news, and it denied that anyone by his name had been detained. Ghandehari says the blackout and this pressure on protesters' families makes it extremely difficult for human rights groups to speak with sources on the ground and confirm these cases.
GHANDEHARI: The scale of threats that's coming from authorities and state media, targeting both Iranians inside the country and outside the country, is unprecedented.
BOUSCAREN: As the weeks drag on, Ghandehari says the circumstances around more of these deaths are finally coming to light. For NPR News, I'm Durrie Bouscaren in Istanbul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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