Amnesty Urges UN Justice Mechanism For "Crimes Against Humanity' In 2022 Iran Protests
Amnesty International said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their suppression of the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, which were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. It also identified 87 officials it said should face criminal investigation over their roles in the crackdown.
In a report of more than 1,000 pages, the rights group said security forces carried out murder, torture, enforced disappearance, imprisonment, rape, and persecution as part of a widespread and systematic attack on protesters. It said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and police implemented a state policy of lethal force through coordinated chains of command.
Amnesty's secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, said "extensive evidence gathered and analyzed in our report leaves no doubt: Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity" to suppress the 2022 protests.
The rights group documented the deaths of 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, and said ethnic Kurdish and Baluchi communities were disproportionately affected. Its investigation drew on interviews with 270 people, more than 2,000 videos and official, leaked, judicial, and forensic documents.
Those identified range from senior national officials to provincial and local security commanders. Amnesty said its list was not exhaustive.
The group called on the UN General Assembly to establish an international criminal justice mechanism for Iran and urged prosecutors in other countries to pursue cases under universal or other extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Amnesty said it had sent its findings to senior Iranian authorities and sought responses from the officials identified. It said none had responded by the time of publication
Amnesty Urges UN Justice Mechanism For "Crimes Against Humanity' In 2022 Iran Protests
Amnesty International said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their suppression of the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, which were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. It also identified 87 officials it said should face criminal investigation over their roles in the crackdown.
In a report of more than 1,000 pages, the rights group said security forces carried out murder, torture, enforced disappearance, imprisonment, rape, and persecution as part of a widespread and systematic attack on protesters. It said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and police implemented a state policy of lethal force through coordinated chains of command.
Amnesty's secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, said "extensive evidence gathered and analyzed in our report leaves no doubt: Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity" to suppress the 2022 protests.
The rights group documented the deaths of 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, and said ethnic Kurdish and Baluchi communities were disproportionately affected. Its investigation drew on interviews with 270 people, more than 2,000 videos and official, leaked, judicial, and forensic documents.
Those identified range from senior national officials to provincial and local security commanders. Amnesty said its list was not exhaustive.
The group called on the UN General Assembly to establish an international criminal justice mechanism for Iran and urged prosecutors in other countries to pursue cases under universal or other extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Amnesty said it had sent its findings to senior Iranian authorities and sought responses from the officials identified. It said none had responded by the time of publication
Four Years After Mahsa Amini's Death, Iranian Women Defy Hijab Law
Four years after Mahsa Amini died in police custody following her detention over Iran’s mandatory hijab law, increasing numbers of Iranian women are appearing in public without head scarves. Amini's death became the catalyst for the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement.
The defiance has grown amid war with the United States and mounting political and economic pressures.
While Iran's so-called morality police have largely disappeared from public life across major cities, questions remain about whether the relaxation is a tactical retreat rather than a policy shift. (Video by By RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Hannah Kaviani, and Austin Malloy)
At Least 100 Iran Protesters Sentenced To Death, Rights Group Says
At least 100 people detained in connection with Iran's January protests have been sentenced to death, including five women and at least five people who were under 18 at the time of their alleged offenses, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.
IHR said the cases, documented across 13 of Iran's 31 provinces, represented only a fraction of protesters potentially facing the death penalty. Only five of the 100 cases had been announced by official sources, it said.
All 100 have received at least a preliminary death sentence, while some have had their sentences upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.
IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said the protesters had been sentenced by Revolutionary Courts in proceedings that "fail to meet minimum fair-trial standards."
The group said defendants in protest-related cases were routinely denied lawyers of their choosing and alleged that torture and coerced confessions were systematically used.
Since March 18, Iran has executed 31 protesters, including 29 detained over the January protests and two linked to the earlier "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement, according to IHR.
The group's latest figures show 561 people have been executed in Iran since the start of 2026.
Shipping Data Shows Hormuz Traffic Falls To Just 4 Vessels
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just four vessels on September 15, down from seven a day earlier and well below the 10-day average of 18, preliminary shipping data showed.
Two vessels entered and two exited the strait, with no very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers recorded. The figures may understate actual traffic because some ships are sailing with their tracking transponders switched off.
Three of the four recorded vessels used the so-called Iranian route -- a northern corridor through waters controlled by Iran that Tehran has sought to establish as the authorized passage through the strait. Another vessel used an unidentified "dark" route.
Commercial traffic through Hormuz has plunged since the Iran war began in February. Tehran has sought to assert control over navigation through the strait and has attacked commercial vessels, while the United States is enforcing a naval blockade aimed at preventing ships from serving Iranian ports and has also attacked Iran-linked vessels.
Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz handled about one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, making it one of the world's most important energy chokepoints. Around 125 large commercial vessels a day typically passed through the waterway before the conflict.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, 22 vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, little changed from 24 a day earlier, amid concerns over recent advances by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels near the waterway. The strait, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is another major global shipping chokepoint, linking the Red Sea and Suez Canal route with the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Pentagon Watchdog Warns Of US Munitions Shortfalls After Iran War
The United States is facing a potential shortfall in ammunition as a result of its war against Iran, according to a Pentagon inspector-general's report providing fullest official accounting of the conflict's costs to date.
The report, using Operation Epic Fury (OEF) as the name for the ongoing US strikes on Iran, noted that "the munitions expenditure on OEF has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply."
In a first-of-its-kind mandatory report to the US Congress released on September 14, the inspector-general said that between February 28 and June 30, the US military operation against Iran had cost an estimated $33.4 billion, of which $22.3 billion was spent on expended munitions alone.
The Pentagon has repeatedly pushed back against reports of any munitions shortage, saying the US military has all the weapons it needs to fight any conflict.
President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on September 14 that "the United States is producing more Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History."
"They are being delivered on a daily basis to our Forces in the Middle East, and beyond," he added.
The inspector-general's report also said that "Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan during the conflict."
"In addition, dozens of US aircraft were destroyed or damaged during OEF," it added.
With reporting by AP and CBS News
Second Sunni Cleric Killed In Less Than A Week
Sunni Baluch cleric Yousef Gorgij was shot dead by unidentified attackers outside his home in Zahedan, the capital of Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province, on September 14.
His death marked the second killing of a Sunni cleric in Iran in less than a week.
On September 9, Sunni Kurdish cleric Mohammad Nazhati was killed in West Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran. Another Sunni cleric, Mohammad Anvar Rigi, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Sistan-Baluchistan on July 20, according to Iranian state media.
All three clerics were reported to be supporters of the Iranian government. No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.
The state-run Mehr News outlet described Gorgij as a pro-government Sunni cleric and blamed what it called “Zionist mercenaries” for his killing, without providing evidence or further details.
Separately, in a statement released to media, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blamed Nazhati's killing in West Azerbaijan on "Zionist-American Kurdish separatist groups."
Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, and West Azerbaijan, near Iran's borders with Turkey and Iraq, are home to large ethnic and religious minority populations.
Both regions have experienced long-running insurgencies that have frequently targeted figures associated with the Iranian state.
US Sanctions Russia’s VTB Bank Over Iran Ties, Warns Foreign Banks
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia’s VTB Bank, accusing one of the country’s largest lenders of helping Iran evade US sanctions through banking relationships and payment arrangements.
The Treasury Department said on September 14 that VTB had established correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian financial institutions, opened offices in Iran, taken steps to facilitate trade, and helped move billions of dollars in Iranian assets.
The move is part of Washington’s expanding “Operation Economic Outcast,” a campaign launched last month to identify and disrupt the networks Iran uses to generate revenue, evade sanctions, and finance the government and its regional allies.
Russia’s second-largest financial institution, VTB was already under extensive US sanctions over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The latest designation targets the bank under Iran sanctions authorities, potentially increasing the risks for foreign financial institutions that continue to do business with it.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would continue targeting institutions that provide financial or technological support to Iran and warned that foreign banks facilitating sanctions evasion could face secondary sanctions.
The move comes after a series of recent US actions against companies and financial networks in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere as Washington seeks to close alternative channels available to Tehran.
On September 10, Treasury also shifted its policy toward a presumption of denial for most Iran-related specific license applications.
Brett Erickson, a sanctions and financial-crime expert at Obsidian Risk Advisors, told RFE/RL that the latest measure could have a limited immediate effect compared with the global effects of the ongoing US war with Iran, which has fueled a surge in oil prices and rattled financial markets.
“Another incremental sanctions measure may shorten Tehran’s runway at the margins, but that is a terrible trade when the broader global crisis is consuming the world’s economic timeline by the mile,” Erickson said.
Trump Says US 'Open' To Deal With Iran
US President Donald Trump has said Washington is open to making a deal with Iran to end the six-month-long war.
In a Truth Social post on September 14, Trump said Tehran “wants to make a deal, quickly and badly.”
“I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage -- The concept of which we are open to,” Trump added.
In June, Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending hostilities, but the agreement unraveled within weeks.
Since then, the sides have sporadically traded strikes.
There have been no official negotiations between US and Iranian officials since a meeting in Switzerland in late June.
Hours after Trump's social media post, Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaee seemingly rejected any talks with the US until "Iran's conditions are met."
"Don’t get distracted by the U.S. president’s mixed signals—from “no negotiations” to “we’re ready to talk,” Rezaee wrote in his X post on September 14. "The stakes around oil and the straits have changed," he added.
Iran Denies Role In Saudi Pipeline Attack
Iran has rejected suggestions that Tehran had prior knowledge of or played any role in the attack on Saudi Arabia's strategic East-West oil pipeline, calling the accusation a "lie."
Addressing his weekly press briefing on September 14, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei responded to comments from US officials about the attack on the pipeline, saying, "the Americans are producing fake news at no cost whatsoever."
Baqei added that, in Tehran’s view, actors from outside the Middle East are "seeking to increase tensions" among regional states by spreading this kind of news, and said Tehran "categorically" denies the allegations.
The pipeline was struck by drones on September 10, forcing Saudi Arabia to announced the next day that it had temporarily shut down the route.
US President Donald Trump named Iran on September 12 as the likely party responsible for the attack.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin when asked whether Iran was responsible, Trump said, "I think they are, probably they are."
Saudi Arabia has said the attack was carried out by a drone launched from Iraqi territory. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
The East-West pipeline is one of Saudi Arabia's most important routes for transporting oil to the Red Sea without passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran Protests Nuclear Chief's Reported Exclusion From UN Atomic Conference
Iran's nuclear chief was barred from attending the UN atomic watchdog's annual conference in Vienna, Iranian state television said on September 14, prompting Tehran to protest to Austria.
Mohammad Eslami and his delegation flew to Vienna on September 12 but were prevented from attending the International Atomic Energy Agency gathering and returned to Tehran, state TV reported.
A diplomatic source in Vienna, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency that Eslami had been refused entry to Austria due to US pressure.
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Austria's charge d'affaires over the decision. Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei accused Washington of pressuring Vienna, an allegation the United States has not publicly addressed.
Senior Iranian atomic official Behruz Kamalvandi told AFP that denying the delegation access set a precedent that could affect other countries, accusing Washington of "bullying political pressure."
Western powers have long suspected Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability, which Tehran denies.