The 26-year-old was arrested in Karaj, a city on the north-west outskirts of Tehran, at the peak of the protests before the internet black-out. Soltani is one of the many thousands of protesters arrested last week.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International has highlighted his case, warning of concerns that Iranian authorities might \u201conce again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to information gathered by Amnesty, the group said an informed sourced learned on 11 January that officials had told Soltani\u2019s family he was sentenced to death. Soltani had lost contact with loved ones on 8 January amid mass protests and the regime\u2019s internet shutdown, the group said.<\/p>\n
Iran is the world\u2019s most prolific executioner after China, according to monitors. Last year, it hanged at least 1,500 people, Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said.<\/p>\n
Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n China opposes any outside interference in Iran\u2019s internal affairs, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump warned that Washington would take \u201cvery strong action\u201d against Tehran.<\/p>\n China does not condone the use or the threat of force in international relations, Mao Ning, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a regular news conference when asked about China\u2019s position after Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n Trump has urged protesters in Iran<\/a> to keep protesting and said that help was on the way.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Iran judiciary chief vows fast trials for suspects arrested over protests<\/p>\n Agence France-Presse (AFP) has more on the comments made by Iran\u2019s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, broadcast by state television.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a person burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire then we must do our work quickly,\u201d Mohseni Ejei said on a visit to a prison holding protest detainees.<\/p>\n Iranian news agencies also quoted him as saying the trials should be held \u201cin public\u201d and said he had spent five hours in a prison in Tehran to examine the cases.<\/p>\n Rights groups say thousands have been arrested and fear the judiciary will make extensive use of capital punishment.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a002.36 EST<\/p>\n The head of Iran\u2019s judiciary signaled on Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television online, according to the Associated Press (AP).<\/p>\n Mohseni-Ejei said:<\/p>\n If we want to do a job, we should do it now. If we want to do something, we have to do it quickly.<\/p>\n He added:<\/p>\n If it becomes late, two months, three months later, it doesn\u2019t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast.<\/p>\n His comments stand as a direct challenge to Trump, who warned Iran<\/a> about executions in an interview with CBS aired on Tuesday. \u201cWe will take very strong action,\u201d Trump warned. \u201cIf they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s crackdown on demonstrations may be the most violent in the country\u2019s contemporary history, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we suspect is that this is the most violent repression in Iran\u2019s contemporary history and that it must absolutely stop,\u201d Barrot said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The US-based HRANA rights group said it had verified the deaths of 2,571 people during Iran\u2019s protests, reports Reuters. <\/p>\n This includes 2,403 protesters, 147 government-affiliated individuals, 12 children aged under 18 and nine non-protester civilians.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s UN mission has posted on X saying that Washington\u2019s \u201cplaybook\u201d would \u201cfail again\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUS fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention. This playbook has failed before. The Iranian people will defend their country\u2014and, most assuredly, it will fail again,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n It shared earlier comments by Iran\u2019s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, in which he called for the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council to condemn \u201call forms of incitement to violence, threats to use force, and interference in Iran\u2019s internal affairs by the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n Iranian ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani. Photograph: Charly Triballeau\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.27 EST<\/p>\n Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran<\/a> who was expelled during the 1979 revolution, has released a video statement urging the people of Iran to continue to resist the regime, and urging members of the army to join with the public.<\/p>\n In the message, he said:<\/p>\n My compatriots, the world has not only seen and heard your voice and courage – it is now responding. By now, you have probably heard the message from the President of the United States. Help is on the way. Continue the fight, as you have done so far. Do not allow this regime to create the illusion that life is normal. After all the massacres, there is a sea of blood between us and this regime.<\/p>\n Save the names of all these criminals. They will be prosecuted for what they have done.<\/p>\n … I also have a special message for members of the army: you are the national military of Iran, you have a duty to protect the lives of your compatriots. You do not have much time. Join them as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Reza Pahlavi pictured last year in Paris. Photograph: Abdul Saboor\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.23 EST<\/p>\n For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet.<\/p>\n Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press. The internet remained blocked, they said, though it is possible to access some government-approved websites.<\/p>\n Cloudfare – an internet infrastructure provider, and one of several companies and monitors tracking the status of internet traffic in Iran \u2013 said traffic volumes have remained \u201cat a fraction of a percent of previous levels\u201d. Its latest update<\/a> as of 01:00 UTC (which is about three hours and 30 minutes ago), shows a continued widespread blackout. Iran has been under an internet shutdown since Thursday night.<\/p>\n Brief windows of connectivity were observed on Friday, but these did not last, according to Cloudfare.<\/p>\n Netblocks<\/a>, an independent global internet monitor, also notes that while some phone calls from Iran are connecting, there is \u201cno secure way to communicate\u201d and the general public remain cut off from the outside world.<\/p>\n Iranians pictured at Enqelab Square in Tehran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh\/EPAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.25 EST<\/p>\n Starlink offers free service in Iran<\/a>, activists say<\/p>\n Satellite internet provider Starlink now offers free service in Iran, activists said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who has helped get the units into Iran, told the Associated Press that the free service had started. Other activists also confirmed in messages online that the service was free. Starlink have not immediately commented.<\/p>\n Starlink has been the only way for Iranians to communicate with the outside world since authorities shut down the internet on Thursday night.<\/p>\n The Guardian has previously reported on the Iranians who have risked their lives<\/a> to send information out of the country during the protests.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Global rallies to support protesters in Iran<\/p>\n People around the world have been rallying over the last week in support of the protests in Iran. One of our picture editors has curated this selection.<\/p>\n Police hold back protesters at Place de la Trocad\u00e9ro in Paris on 11 January. Photograph: Kiran Ridley\/AFP\/Getty ImagesProtesters gather outside the US consulate in Milan, Italy. Photograph: Claudia Greco\/ReutersDemonstrators hold flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Photograph: Tolga Akmen\/EPAPolice line up in front of demonstrators outside the Iranian embassy in Berlin on 11 January. Photograph: Rouzbeh Fouladi\/ZUMA Press Wire\/ShutterstockPeople in Zurich, Switzerland rally on 13 January in support of the mass demonstrations in Iran. Photograph: Michael Buholzer\/EPAA man lights a cigarette with a flame from a burning picture of Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outside the Iranian embassy in London. Photograph: Toby Melville\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s been plenty of Iran<\/a> news in the past 12 hours. All eyes are on the White House to see what action Trump might decide to take against Iran. It has also just ticked past 6am on Wednesday in Tehran, and there are reports Erfan Soltani will be executed in Iran today.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a summary to bring you up to speed:<\/p>\n Donald Trump has said the US \u201cwill take very strong action\u201d against Iran if the regime starts to execute people as part of their crackdown on the spiralling protests.<\/p>\n Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old man arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, according to the Iranian Kurdish rights group, Hengaw. Authorities had told the family that the death sentence was final, Hengaw reported, citing a source close to the family.<\/p>\n The US president has urged the protests to continue, and again suggested US military action could follow. \u201cIranian Patriots, keep protesting \u2013 take over your institutions!!! \u2026 help is on its way,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White House press secretary said airstrikes were among \u201cmany, many options\u201d the US president was considering.<\/p>\n More than 2,500 people have been killed in the protests \u2013 more than 90% of whom were demonstrators \u2013 and over 18,000 people have been arrested, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.<\/p>\n Doctors in Iran have described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who had been shot. One ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries<\/a> from gunshots in a single hospital.<\/p>\n The US state department has said US citizens should leave Iran<\/a> now and \u201cif safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or T\u00fcrkiye\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump announced that he was cancelling meetings with Iranian officials \u201cuntil the senseless killing\u201d stops, signalling a possible breakdown in de-escalation efforts. Trump was expected to receive a briefing on Tuesday night on the scale of casualties in Iran.<\/p>\n Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX is offering people in Iran free internet through Starlink\u2019s satellite service, according to Bloomberg News<\/a>, as the internet blackout in the country surpassed the five-day mark.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff met in secret with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former Iranian crown prince, last weekend, Axios reported. A senior US official told the outlet the pair discussed the protests. In previous messages that have been blocked by the Iranian government internet shutdown, he has said that he is ready to lead a transition.<\/p>\n In response to Trump\u2019s social media post that \u201chelp is on the way,\u201d Iran\u2019s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the US president was inciting violence, threatening the country\u2019s sovereignty and security and seeking to destabilise the government. \u201cThe United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth,\u201d he wrote in a letter to the UN security council.<\/p>\n Russia on Tuesday condemned \u201csubversive external interference\u201d in Iran\u2019s internal politics, saying any repeat of last year\u2019s US strikes would have \u201cdisastrous consequences\u201d for the Middle East and international security.<\/p>\n Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian ambassadors in protest over the crackdown. \u201cThe rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,\u201d European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen posted on X.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a022.16 EST<\/p>\n Trump warns Iran<\/a> \u2018it\u2019s not going to work out good\u2019 if hangings begin<\/p>\n Just coming back to some of Donald Trump\u2019s comments during an interview with CBS on Tuesday night (US time).<\/p>\n The CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil asked Trump about hangings reportedly set to begin taking place in Iran on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Trump replied: \u201cWe will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.\u201d<\/p>\n When pressed further about what \u201cstrong action\u201d means, Trump mentioned the recent US strikes on Venezuela<\/a> and the 2019 killing of then Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi<\/a>. The president then turned to Iran:<\/p>\n We don\u2019t want to see what\u2019s happening in Iran happen. And, you know, if they want to have protests, that\u2019s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people. And now you\u2019re telling me about hanging. We\u2019ll see how that works out for them. It\u2019s not going to work out good.<\/p>\n Donald Trump interviewed by Tony Dokoupil on CBS news. Photograph: CBS NewsShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.29 EST<\/p>\n Iranian authorities insist they have regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests since Thursday.<\/p>\n Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown<\/a> with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.<\/p>\n International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to some reports, and the quality remained spotty, with frequent interruptions.<\/p>\n Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed during the protests, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies.<\/p>\n Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the \u201cmartyrs\u201d of recent days.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.59 EST<\/p>\n Protester death toll jumps to at least 2,571, says activist group<\/p>\n The death toll from a crackdown on protests in Iran<\/a> has jumped to at least 2,571, including 12 children, activists said early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The figure came from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in Iran in recent years.<\/p>\n The activist group said 2,403 of the dead were protesters and 147 were government-affiliated. Twelve children were killed, along with nine civilians it said were not taking part in protests. More than 18,100 people have been detained, the group said.<\/p>\n With the internet down in Iran<\/a>, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran\u2019s government has not offered overall casualty figures.<\/p>\n That death toll dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country\u2019s 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n Cars burn in a street on 8 January during a protest in Tehran. After days of protests, the Iranian regime imposed a deadly crackdown on nationwide anti-government movements. Photograph: ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a020.47 EST<\/p>\n Erfan Soltani reportedly facing imminent execution<\/p>\n Erfan Soltani is reportedly facing execution in Iran<\/a> on Wednesday after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, following his arrest on Thursday.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old was arrested in Karaj, a city on the north-west outskirts of Tehran, at the peak of the protests before the internet black-out. Soltani is one of the many thousands of protesters arrested last week.<\/p>\n Amnesty International has highlighted his case, warning of concerns that Iranian authorities might \u201conce again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent\u201d.<\/p>\n According to information gathered by Amnesty, the group said an informed sourced learned on 11 January that officials had told Soltani\u2019s family he was sentenced to death. Soltani had lost contact with loved ones on 8 January amid mass protests and the regime\u2019s internet shutdown, the group said.<\/p>\n Iran is the world\u2019s most prolific executioner after China, according to monitors. Last year, it hanged at least 1,500 people, Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said.<\/p>\n Donald Trump flew back to Washington DC on Tuesday evening, to be briefed on potential US action in Iran. It is just after 8pm in DC, and 4.30am on Wednesday in Iran.<\/p>\n President Trump returns to the White House on Tuesday after visiting Detroit. Photograph: Shawn Thew\/EPADonald Trump walks across the South Lawn. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst\/ReutersDonald Trump pictured in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday evening. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst\/ReutersShare<\/a>Opening summary<\/p>\n Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Iran crisis. Donald Trump has said the US \u201cwill take very strong action\u201d against Iran if the regime starts to execute people as part of their crackdown on the spiralling protests inside the country.<\/p>\n Trump told CBS News: \u201cWhen they start killing thousands of people \u2013 and now you\u2019re telling me about hanging. We\u2019ll see how that\u2019s going to work out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Hengaw, an Iranian Kurdish rights group, has reported that Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old man arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj, will be executed on Wednesday. Authorities had told the family that the death sentence was final, Hengaw reported, citing a source close to the family.<\/p>\n The US president has urged the protests to continue, and again suggested US military action could follow. \u201cIranian Patriots, keep protesting \u2013 take over your institutions!!! \u2026 help is on its way,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White House press secretary said airstrikes were among \u201cmany, many options\u201d the US president was considering.<\/p>\n Increasingly credible reports have emerged that thousands of people had been killed in the protests. The reports range from 2,000 to as many as 20,000, according to two CBS sources citing medical records from hospitals. The Iranian regime has not provided any official numbers.<\/p>\n In other developments:<\/p>\n The US state department has said US citizens should leave Iran<\/a> now and \u201cif safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or T\u00fcrkiye\u201d. The US virtual embassy for Iran<\/a> says citizens should \u201cplan alternative means of communication\u201d due to \u201ccontinued internet outages\u201d and \u201chave a plan for departing that does not rely on US government help\u201d.<\/p>\n Donald Trump announced that he was cancelling meetings with Iranian officials \u201cuntil the senseless killing\u201d stops, signalling a possible breakdown in de-escalation efforts. Trump is expected to receive a briefing on Tuesday night on the scale of casualties in Iran. His vice-president JD Vance, who had reportedly<\/a> been urging Trump to try diplomacy first, is chairing a a National Security Council principals meeting on Iran.<\/p>\n Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX is offering people in Iran free internet through Starlink\u2019s satellite service, according to Bloomberg News<\/a>, as the internet blackout in the country surpassed the five-day mark. The subscription fee has been waived so that people with receivers in Iran<\/a> can access service without paying, according to Bloomberg\u2019s report.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff met in secret with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former Iranian crown prince, last weekend, Axios reported. A senior US official told the outlet the pair discussed the protests. In previous messages that have been blocked by the Iranian government internet shutdown, he has said that he is ready to lead a transition. He has also pushed for a referendum and nonviolent change in the country.<\/p>\n![\"Erfan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/524.jpg\")
Erfan Soltani, 26, is reportedly facing imminent execution in Iran. Photograph: HENGAW ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTSShare<\/a><\/p>\nErfan Soltani, 26, is reportedly facing imminent execution in Iran. Photograph: HENGAW ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTSShare<\/a><\/p>\n