Video UN pressed on Iran executions after Guterres-Pezeshkian meeting UN spokesperson says Guterres has raised executions with Iranian leaders in other meetings after official readout of talks with president makes no mention of issue. (Credit: UNTV)
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday as Iranians detained in connection with January's nationwide protests continue to face prison sentences, alleged torture and a growing number of death sentences and executions.
The UN readout of the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, said Guterres raised the humanitarian and economic consequences of the conflict involving Iran and stressed the need for diplomacy and respect for international law.
The readout made no mention of Iran's treatment of protesters, executions or allegations of torture.
Asked by Fox News Digital at Tuesday's UN briefing whether Guterres raised those issues directly with Pezeshkian, and if so, why they were not included in the readout, the secretary-general's spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said he had "nothing to add to the readout."
'KILLING OFF THE COUNTRY': IRAN EXECUTES DOZENS, ARRESTS 4,000-PLUS IN WAR CRACKDOWN
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (L) shakes hands with the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the UN's General Assembly on September 25, 2025, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
But Dujarric said Guterres had raised the issues with senior Iranian officials in other meetings.
"I can tell you that in other meetings with senior Iranian leaders, in New York and other places, the Secretary-General has raised those issues directly," Dujarric said. "We have, from this podium, on behalf of the Secretary-General, condemned in no uncertain terms the use of the death penalty in Iran, as we stand against the death penalty in every country."
The exchange comes as human rights organizations report that Tehran's crackdown has continued months after the January demonstrations.
Iran International reported Aug. 7, citing rights groups, that more than 60,000 people were detained across Iran following the protests, while some independent sources put the number of people summoned, detained or interrogated above 100,000.
IRAN HANGS 2 PROTESTERS IN PUBLIC, CROWD CRIES 'DISHONORABLE' AS SECURITY FIRES TEAR GAS
Iranian security forces allegedly killed detainees and burned bodies during protests, with clashes continuing in Kermanshah, Rasht and Mashhad despite government claims. (NCRI)
In Ardabil province alone, roughly 800 people were arrested during the protests, according to the report, which cited the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA. As of early August, at least 54 remained in Ardabil Prison, including 29 who had not yet received a hearing.
New figures released Tuesday show the punishments have continued. In its monthly report published Sept. 1, HRANA said it documented 78 executions across Iran in August, including two people executed in connection with the January protests. Iranian courts issued 21 death sentences during the month, including against 10 defendants in an Isfahan case stemming from the protests.
The group also documented six cases of forced confessions, four cases of prisoners being beaten, four transfers to solitary confinement and nine cases in which detainees were denied access to legal counsel.
HRANA reported Aug. 31 that 13 people arrested in connection with the January protests were sentenced to a combined 24 years, three months and one day in prison. Four of the defendants also received a combined 196 lashes, while one was sentenced to two years of exile.
The crackdown has also increasingly involved capital punishment. Iran International reported Aug. 26, citing HRANA, that two additional January protest detainees had been sentenced to death.
The same report cited the U.S.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center as saying it had documented 950 executions in Iran since the beginning of 2026, including at least 30 protesters.
INSIDE TEHRAN: IRANIANS DESCRIBE IRGC'S BRUTAL RULE, POVERTY — ASK TRUMP TO 'STAY THE COURSE'
Seyed Ahmad Seyedabdollahi, a 32-year-old Iranian psychologist, who addressed President Donald Trump in an English-language video posted on Jan. 4, 2026, urging him to follow through on his pledge to support Iranian protesters. Seyedabdollahi was arrested 10 days later and was subsequently sentenced to seven months in prison. (Fox News)
Among those imprisoned is Seyed Ahmad Seyedabdollahi, a 32-year-old psychologist whose case Fox News Digital reported in August.
Seyedabdollahi posted an English-language video Jan. 4 appealing directly to President Donald Trump to support Iranian protesters. He was arrested 10 days later and ultimately sentenced to seven months in prison and barred from government and public services for five years.
His relatives told Fox News Digital that Iranian authorities later pressured him to record another video insulting Trump and Americans. Fox News Digital could not independently verify those specific demands, but IranWire reported Aug. 11 that security agents instructed him to read a prepared anti-Trump script on camera and that he repeatedly refused despite alleged threats and coercion.
His relatives also alleged that Seyedabdollahi was subjected to solitary confinement and torture. Hana Human Rights Organization reported Aug. 9 that he had been held in Borujen Prison since July 7 and that authorities opened a second case against him on a charge of "propaganda against the system of the Islamic Republic."
WALTZ CALLS OUT IRANIAN DIPLOMAT AT UN FOLLOWING DRONE STRIKES ON BAHRAIN AND KUWAIT
Iran publicly hanged Abolfazl Sepahi-Badjani Tuesday over his. alleged roles in January's nationwide anti-government protests (Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA))
The fate of Iran's detainees also surfaced Tuesday at the UN Security Council as France assumed the rotating presidency for September. The Security Council's official presidency list shows France holding the September presidency, with Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont serving as council president.
Asked by Fox News Digital whether France planned to address Iranians detained following the protests and reports of torture and executions during its presidency, Bonnafont said the council's central focus on Iran this month would be Tehran's nuclear program, but stressed that those discussions would not take place "in a vacuum."
"You referred to this matter with the situation of the civilian population in Iran," Bonnafont told Fox News Digital, according to a translation of his remarks. "They are the victims of the choices made by the Iranian authorities for years now, with these episodes of mass repression to which you referred."
Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American environmentalist who spent years imprisoned in Iran before his release in a 2023 prisoner exchange with the United States, previously described to Fox News Digital the conditions detainees can face inside the Iranian prison system.
Tahbaz said he spent four months alone in a small cell under a bright light that remained on 24 hours a day. He was allowed out twice a day for about 10 minutes and was blindfolded whenever he left the cell.
He described the IRGC intelligence facility at Tehran's Evin Prison as "probably the harshest and toughest imprisonment that any prisoner will go through."
Tahbaz said one of the most difficult aspects of being held by Iran was knowing that even the end of a prison sentence did not necessarily mean freedom.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian American conservationist, spent nearly six years in Iran’s Evin Prison before being released with four other Americans in September 2023. (Morad Tahbaz)
"When you are a hostage … [you don't know that] at the end of your sentence they'll necessarily let you go," Tahbaz told Fox News Digital. "They'll just come up with another charge to keep you there for as long as you're of value to them."
Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.
Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in political science.
