Iran continues crackdown on anti-government protesters despite Trump's threat

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Iran continues crackdown on anti-government protesters despite Trump's threat President Trump set a red line for Iran not to execute protesters, but dozens are being sentenced to death. World Iran continues crackdown on anti-government protesters despite Trump's threat February 27, 20264:43 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Durrie Bouscaren Iran continues crackdown on anti-government protesters despite Trump's threat Listen &middot; 3:34 3:34 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5724974/nx-s1-9666200" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript President Trump set a red line for Iran not to execute protesters, but dozens are being sentenced to death. Sponsor Message A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: U.S. and Iranian officials have ended another round of negotiations without an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. With a fleet of U.S. warships and aircraft still parked in the Middle East, Iran has continued its crackdown on those who took part in anti-government protests last month. Human rights groups say that government forces killed thousands of people in those protests and tens of thousands have been arrested. Some of those protesters face the death penalty. Durrie Bouscaren reports.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: (Speaking Farsi). DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: In this video, which aired on a state-run broadcaster in Iran, 18-year-old Ehsan Hosseinipour Hessarlou stands in a courtroom wearing a blue-striped prison jumpsuit. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: (Speaking Farsi). BOUSCAREN: "How many Molotov cocktails did you have?" the judge asks. EHSAN HOSSEINIPOUR HESSARLOU: (Speaking Farsi). BOUSCAREN: Hosseinipour Hessarlou says he had two, that he threw them inside a mosque during the protests. Activists say these confessions are forced and should not be considered true. They say reports of torture and threats against family members to extract confessions are well-documented and widespread in Iran's prison system. MAHMOOD AMIRY-MOGHADDAM: All of them are sentenced based on forced confessions. BOUSCAREN: Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam is the director of Iran Human Rights, an organization based in Norway. They identified at least 26 protesters who have been sentenced to death in recent weeks. And they fear hundreds more are at risk of execution. AMIRY-MOGHADDAM: What we think is that, most probably, the actual number of those who have already received the sentence is much higher, given the limitations we have in gathering this kind of information. BOUSCAREN: Amiry-Moghaddam's organization has highlighted Ehsan Hosseinipour Hessarlou's case in particular. The 18-year-old is one of three teenagers accused of setting a fire in a mosque on January 8 near Tehran. Two members of the paramilitary forces were allegedly killed in the blaze. Hosseinipour Hessarlou's family's attorney says he's innocent, that he was arrested 2 hours before the fire. And he doesn't even appear in CCTV footage released as evidence, they say. Amiry-Moghaddam says, as far as he knows, none of the death sentences announced publicly have been carried out yet, but the clock is ticking. AMIRY-MOGHADDAM: We are concerned that some of these people will be executed in the coming days and weeks. BOUSCAREN: Capital punishment is used in Iran. And in recent weeks, the government has hung people previously convicted of drug offenses. In an interview with CBS News in January, Trump was questioned on his promise to intervene if Iran killed protesters. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will take very strong action if they do such a thing, we will take very strong action. BOUSCAREN: The United States has dispatched two aircraft carrier groups to the region. Trump has threatened to attack if nuclear talks fail. But within Iran, Amiry-Moghaddam says that airing these trials and publicly announcing these executions is a way to tamp down dissent in the meantime. AMIRY-MOGHADDAM: As we have seen in these protests, the aim has been to terrorize the whole society, to kill as many as possible and to set an example so that people don't come out again. BOUSCAREN: But this week, large crowds of students at three separate universities took to the streets defying the harshest crackdown on protesters in a generation. For NPR News, I'm Durrie Bouscaren, Istanbul. (SOUNDBITE OF SAM PREKOP'S "A CLOUD TO THE BACK") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(84)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();