On 10 October 2026, an unauthorized third party gained access to the work account of one of our correspondents. The correspondent was approached by someone posing as a representative of an established think tank and invited to join an online meeting.
The link led to a fraudulent sign-in page, through which the correspondent’s login credentials were obtained and used to access the account. The account was secured in a timely manner.
We believe the attack was carried out by actors linked to the Iranian regime.
It follows an established pattern: security researchers and human rights organizations have repeatedly documented Iranian state-linked hackers impersonating journalists, think tanks and event organizers, and inviting Iranian activists, journalists and researchers to conferences, interviews or online meetings in order to steal their login details.
Iran International staff have been impersonated in such campaigns before.
We have found no evidence that any other account was compromised. During the incident, emails and files available to the correspondent have been accessible to the unauthorized party, including internal newsgathering and planning material and personal information about some colleagues and people we work with.
We take our duty to protect our journalists, contributors and everyone we work with extremely seriously. We are contacting directly those whose information may have been affected by this incident and offering appropriate support. We have informed the relevant authorities.
If you are contacted unexpectedly by someone claiming to represent Iran International, or any organization inviting you to a meeting or event, please verify the approach through a channel you already trust before clicking any link or signing in.
Journalists covering Iran face persistent and well-resourced attempts to compromise them. We will not be deterred from our work.
A Social Security hospital in Tehran has locked its main building and moved treatment into a cramped clinic in its courtyard, a member of the insurer’s healthcare oversight committee said, two months after officials listed it among the capital’s unsafe hospitals.
The main building of Shariat Razavi Hospital, run by the Social Security Organization, the state insurer that covers most of Iran’s workers and retirees, is deteriorating behind locked doors with its costly equipment still inside, Hossein Nategh told the labor-affiliated news agency ILNA on Thursday.
The move has turned a fully equipped hospital into what he called an outpatient clinic with the bare minimum of space, cutting the number of patients it can admit and the specialist care it can offer.
“The clinic set up in the yard has neither enough space for patients’ comfort nor the capacity to provide the services expected of a hospital,” he said.
The hospital’s equipment and funds belong to the workers and insured people who pay for them, Nategh said, and patients should not be left waiting in a cramped courtyard while the main building stands unused.
“If the building has a safety problem, why isn’t it being repaired? And if there is no plan to close it, why aren’t these resources being used?” he said. “This situation amounts to squandering the healthcare assets of the working community.”
He called for the main building to be reopened with its full equipment, or for an official explanation of why it was closed and what has happened to the equipment.
Neither ILNA’s report nor any statement from the Social Security Organization has explained why the building was closed or said what will happen to its equipment.
A list of unsafe hospitals
On August 18, Ali Nasiri, head of Tehran’s crisis management organization, named Shariat Razavi among 17 unsafe hospitals in the capital that were being made safe.
Warnings about the safety of Tehran’s buildings, hospitals among them, are not new. In 2024, the head of the city’s fire department said only 52 of the capital’s 189 hospitals had safety certification and that 125 were high-risk. In late 2025, a deputy fire chief, Kamran Abdoli, said 80,000 unsafe buildings had been identified in Tehran, about 27,000 of them high-risk.
Some of the warnings have ended in deaths. In June 2024, a fire at Qaem Hospital in Rasht, in northern Iran, killed at least nine patients with officials saying afterward that the hospital had never installed a fire suppression system despite earlier warnings. In early 2024, a fire broke out at Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, which fire officials said had received five safety notices beforehand and had faulty fire alarm and suppression systems.
Around the same time, Saeed Karimi, then the health ministry’s deputy for treatment, said about 100 hospitals were operating without a license because they had not fixed problems with safety or hygiene standards or with insurance contracts, and that closing them all at once would damage health services.
Iran has built impunity for the killing of protesters into its laws and judicial system, Amnesty International said in an investigation detailing how security forces accused of deadly violence can help determine whether their own actions were lawful.
Four years after the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, Amnesty said official denial, firearms legislation, compromised judicial proceedings and government-appointed investigations had combined to shield those responsible for the 2022 crackdown from meaningful accountability.
The findings form part of Amnesty International's report Architects of Atrocities: State Machinery Orchestrating Crimes Against Humanity in Iran's 2022 Woman Life Freedom Uprising.
State denial and glorification
Amnesty identified six recurring narratives used by Iranian authorities and state-affiliated media to deny responsibility for the killing of protesters.
Authorities blamed unidentified individuals or protesters themselves, portrayed deaths as staged or attributed them to private disputes, illness, suicide, road accidents and other causes.
They also alleged that some victims had been killed during clashes involving armed opposition groups or while confronting security forces, without providing evidence.
According to the report, state institutions pressured families of those killed to publicly endorse the government's versions of events.
Amnesty found that authorities responded particularly rapidly to reports of women and girls being killed, circulating alternative explanations in an effort to prevent them from becoming symbols of the protest movement.
Senior judicial officials meanwhile publicly praised security forces involved in suppressing the demonstrations, which Amnesty said reinforced impunity and demonstrated a lack of judicial impartiality.
Laws protecting lethal force
Amnesty said Iranian law provides security forces with broad authority to use firearms against protesters, including at peaceful gatherings classified as unlawful.
Under the Law on the Use of Firearms, officers can open fire to disperse demonstrations deemed illegal when other measures have failed and a warning has been issued. Fewer restrictions apply to gatherings authorities classify as armed.
Amnesty said the legislation falls short of international standards restricting firearms to situations involving an imminent threat of death or serious injury.
The law also protects security personnel from criminal liability. Officers whose use of firearms is deemed lawful are exempt from civil and criminal responsibility, while compensation for an innocent person killed or injured can be paid by the relevant security institution rather than the officer.
Amnesty also highlighted legislation imposing severe penalties on armed forces personnel who refuse to use weapons or engage forces designated as enemies in certain circumstances.
The organization said the provisions could punish personnel for refusing to carry out military duties while shielding those who use lethal force in accordance with domestic law.
Security forces investigating themselves
Cases involving protesters killed by security personnel are handled within a military judicial system closely connected to the armed forces, Amnesty said.
A decree issued by Iran's supreme leader requires at least half of judges, prosecutors and administrative staff within the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces to be members of the armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards, police and army.
When shootings occur, an internal committee within the relevant security force assesses whether officers complied with firearms legislation. Military prosecutors and courts can then rely on those findings.
Amnesty examined 10 judicial cases across eight provinces involving protesters and bystanders killed during the 2022 uprising.
Four investigations were terminated because prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to establish security-force responsibility. In two others, authorities acknowledged that security personnel had fired the fatal shots but still terminated criminal investigations.
Other cases resulted in convictions, but Amnesty said they demonstrated how convictions could subsequently be overturned, charges reduced or imprisonment replaced with financial compensation.
Supreme court intervention
Mohammad Jameh Bozorg was killed inside his home in Malard, west of Tehran, in September 2022 after members of the Basij paramilitary force raided the property.
Basij member Shahram Bazrbouy was initially sentenced to death under qesas, or retributive punishment, for shooting him in the face at close range.
After then-Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami requested a judicial review, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei determined that the killing did not constitute intentional murder.
The Supreme Court subsequently overturned the murder conviction, sentenced Bazrbouy to three years in prison and ordered the Revolutionary Guards to pay blood money to the victim's family.
In another case, a death sentence against the police officer who killed Sepehr Biranvand in Khorramabad was twice overturned by the Supreme Court. The officer was ultimately acquitted of murder and sentenced to 10 months in prison for unlawful shooting.
Amnesty said an earlier court had cited CCTV footage showing the officer deliberately aiming at Biranvand as he fled, but the later ruling accepted his account that the shooting had been accidental.
Government investigations
Two days before the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to establish an independent fact-finding mission into the crackdown, then-Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced the formation of a domestic investigative committee in November 2022.
Then-President Ebrahim Raisi established a separate special committee in May 2023, whose mandate was later extended by President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian authorities repeatedly cited the committee as justification for refusing to cooperate with the UN investigation.
Amnesty concluded that the committee's investigations lacked independence, impartiality and transparency.
More than two-thirds of its main 110-page report focused on accusations against foreign governments, media outlets and online platforms. Only 15 pages addressed allegations of human rights violations, with just half a page devoted to examining the deaths.
Amnesty also found that parts of the report repeated material published by Iranian intelligence and security institutions, including passages copied word for word from a joint statement by the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization.
The organization said the committee had recycled official narratives rather than independently investigated allegations of unlawful killings, torture and other abuses.
Amnesty concluded that meaningful accountability would remain unattainable without fundamental changes to the laws and institutions responsible for investigating and prosecuting such crimes.
Iranian police fired 36 rounds at a car during a seven-minute chase near Tehran, killing two brothers aged 15 and 19 after its occupants honked their horn while celebrating the death of then-supreme leader Ali Khamenei, a source close to the family told Iran International.
Khamenei, 86, was killed on February 28 when US and Israeli forces struck his compound in central Tehran in the opening attacks of the war. His death prompted celebrations in parts of the country.
The brothers, Ahmadreza Feyzi, 15, and Amirhossein Feyzi, 19, were traveling with their father, several of his colleagues and one colleague's wife from Mehrshahr to nearby Fardis, according to the source.
Police first confronted the group at Fardis's second roundabout after hearing them honk the car horn along many more who were doing so in celebration, the source said.
Following a verbal altercation, officers alerted colleagues by radio and the vehicle was stopped at the next roundabout.
One officer confronted a colleague of the boys' father, while another smashed the car's rear windows with the stock of his rifle despite seeing the two brothers in the back seat, according to the source.
Their father drove away to get his children away from the confrontation, prompting officers to call for backup. A police emergency response unit subsequently joined the pursuit.
During a chase lasting roughly seven minutes, officers fired 36 rounds at the vehicle, the source said.
At one point, Amirhossein realized his younger brother had been shot and tried to revive him in the back seat, but Ahmadreza was unresponsive.
Their father continued driving in an attempt to get his sons to safety as officers pursued and fired at the vehicle, according to the source.
The source said officers opened sustained fire along a less congested stretch of road and fired two additional shots after the vehicle had come to a complete stop near a fire station.
Delayed medical treatment
Ahmadreza was shot in the heart, while Amirhossein suffered a gunshot wound to his side, according to the source.
Officers beat the vehicle's occupants and forced them out after the car stopped, the source said. The father realized both his sons had been shot when neither emerged.
Officers refused his request to take the brothers to Shohadaye Salamat Hospital and instead transported them to Resalat Clinic in Fardis, saying the facility fell within their jurisdiction.
The source said the clinic lacked the equipment needed to treat gunshot wounds and blamed the delay in receiving appropriate medical care for Amirhossein's death.
Plainclothes security personnel later beat family members who protested the killings, according to the source.
The brothers' bodies were subsequently placed in black body bags and taken to an undisclosed location.
Bodies withheld for four days
Security authorities withheld the brothers' bodies from their family for four days, according to the source.
During that period, the family was pressured to bury them at the remote Behesht-e Ali cemetery.
The source said the family eventually agreed so they could recover the bodies and bury the brothers as soon as possible.
Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on the brothers' deaths.
Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned Iran’s execution of five men in cases linked to the January protests within one week and called for coordinated international pressure on Tehran to halt further executions.
The five men were Ali Hemmati Sistanian, Alireza Raisi, Alireza Sepahi, Majid Nikandish and Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi. They were executed between September 30 and October 5.
“The arbitrary executions of these five young men serves as another chilling reminder of how the Iranian authorities weaponize the death penalty,” Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.
Amnesty said the cases followed a recurring pattern in which defendants were denied lawyers during interrogations, allegations of torture were not investigated and televised confessions were used as evidence in trials before Revolutionary Courts.
Five executions in six days
Alireza Raisi and Alireza Sepahi were executed in Isfahan on October 5 over the Alikhani Square case, a mass prosecution stemming from clashes during the January 8 protests in the city.
Iran’s judiciary said defendants in the case were accused of offenses including blocking roads, damaging property, arson and involvement in the deaths of four members of the security forces.
Amnesty said Sepahi had reported prolonged solitary confinement, beatings and electric shocks while in detention and had been denied access to a lawyer during the investigative stage.
Majid Nikandish and Ali Hemmati Sistanian were executed in Mashhad on September 30 over protests there on January 8. Amnesty said televised confessions obtained while the men lacked access to lawyers were later used against them.
Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi was executed in Shahr-e Kord on October 3 after being convicted of charges including moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” over accusations that he fired a weapon during protests.
Amnesty calls for international pressure
Amnesty said at least 34 people have been executed in cases related to the January protests and warned that scores of others remain at risk of politically motivated executions.
The group called for coordinated diplomatic pressure on Tehran to halt further executions and urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Iran to the International Criminal Court.
Meta and Google removed Iran’s “Adam and Eve” matchmaking app and related promotional accounts after an investigation found girls as young as 13 were being listed as prospective spouses, US-based rights group HRANA said Monday.
“The exploitation of children is a horrific crime and we work aggressively to fight it on and off our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson told HRANA. “We investigated the information provided by HRANA and identified external links to underage marriage services. We have removed these entities from Meta platforms.”
Google separately told the group: “The app was removed from Google Play on October 9 for violating our policies.”
HRANA said the action followed an Oct. 8 investigation and a joint appeal by 24 civil society groups urging the companies to remove the app and strengthen protections against services facilitating underage marriage.
The platform had previously drawn scrutiny after Iran’s reformist Shargh newspaper reported in November 2025 that parents could register children as young as 13 as marriage candidates. Reporters were able to create a full profile for a girl born in 2012 without encountering an age restriction or identity barrier.
Shargh said profiles of users under 18 were concentrated in poorer regions where early marriage is more common, with girls most frequently listed between the ages of 13 and 16 and boys between 16 and 18.
The platform’s executive manager, Mohammad-Hossein Asghari, defended the policy at the time, saying Iranian law obliged the service to accept users who fell within the statutory marriage ages.
“Article 1041 of the Civil Code sets the marriage age at 13 for women and 15 for men,” Asghari said. “From a legal standpoint we are obliged to accept membership and cannot block someone who falls within the age range set by law.”
Around 300,000 people had attempted to register with the platform and about 70,000 profiles were active following identity checks and psychological screening, according to Asghari. Minors under 15, he said, were required to have a parent complete the registration form and staff would speak directly with the child before approval.
Child-rights advocates quoted by Shargh warned that formalizing marriage involving minors through a widely promoted digital platform risked further normalizing the practice.
Iran’s Statistical Center recorded about 25,900 marriages involving girls under 15 in 2022, down from roughly 32,000 a year earlier.