President Donald Trump has said the US will take “very strong action” against Iran if it executes protesters, as rights groups say more than 2,400 anti-government demonstrators have been killed in a violent crackdown by Iranian authorities.
Relatives of 26-year-old Erfan Soltani, who was detained last week, have told BBC Persian that he is due to be executed on Wednesday.
A representative from the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights also told the BBC that they had “never witnessed a case move so quickly”.
Speaking to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, Trump said: “If they hang them, you’re going to see some things… We will take very strong action if they do such a thing.”
Soltani’s relative told BBC Persian that an Iranian court had issued a death sentence “in an extremely rapid process, within just two days”.
Awyar Shekhi, a representative of Hengaw, said that the case demonstrated that the Iranian government is “using every tactic they know to suppress people and spread fear”.
An Iranian official told Reuters that 2,000 people had been killed, but that “terrorists” were to blame.
Trump earlier said he planned to attend a meeting at the White House on Tuesday night to discuss the situation in Iran, pledging to get “accurate numbers” on the death toll from the protests.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said that it had so far confirmed the killing of 2,403 protesters, as well as 12 children, despite an internet blackout. Nearly 150 people affiliated with the government have also been killed, the group said.
“The killing looks like it’s significant, but we don’t know yet for certain,” Trump told reporters while returning to the White House.
Once he has the numbers, he said, “we’ll act accordingly.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Iranian authorities would “pay a big price” for the killings, and urged people to “keep protesting”.
“I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!,” he added, using the acronym for a US-based Iranian opposition slogan, “Make Iran Great Again”.
It is difficult to gauge the true scale of bloodshed because, like other international news organisations, the BBC is not able to report from inside the country.
However, videos posted online on Sunday showed people searching for the bodies of their loved ones at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran. The BBC counted at least 180 shrouded bodies and body bags in the footage.
Around 50 bodies were visible in another video from the facility shared on Monday.
“My friend went there [Kahrizak] to look for his brother, and he forgot his own sorrow,” an activist told BBC Persian on Monday.
“They piled up bodies from every neighbourhood, like Saadatabad, Naziabad, Sattarkhan. So you go to your address pile and search there. You don’t know a fraction of the level of violence that’s been used.”
bbc.com