Iran’s judiciary suggests fast-tracked trials for protesters
Iran’s judiciary has said it will move swiftly against those arrested in massive nationwide protests now into their third week, signalling fast-track trials and executions.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran’s judicial system, delivered the warning in a video released by state television on Wednesday, calling on courts and prosecutors to act without delay.
“If we want to do a job, we should do it now,” Mohseni-Ejei said, adding that any pause would undermine the state’s ability to deter further violence.
“If it becomes late – two months, three months later – it doesn’t have the same effect. If we want to do something, we have to do that fast,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) organisation reported that at least 734 protesters have been killed, including 12 children, thousands wounded, and more than 10,000 arrested.
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Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO, said his organisation’s figures reflect only what they could verify amid the internet shutdown, and said the real toll is likely higher.
An anonymous Iranian official told Reuters that around 2,000 people had been killed.
The remarks by Iran’s judiciary chief suggest accelerated legal proceedings for those accused of protest-related violence, raising the prospect of quick convictions and, in some cases, capital punishment.
Tehran plans to hold funerals for the “martyrs and security defenders” who died during protests, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
Iranian officials say more than 100 members of the security forces have been killed since the demonstrations erupted on 28 December.
Calls for diplomacy
China and Turkey have pushed back against Washington’s escalating rhetoric towards Iran, calling for restraint and dialogue after US President Donald Trump openly threatened action over the protests.
Beijing said it opposed any outside interference in Iran’s internal affairs and rejected the use of force. The Chinese foreign ministry said it backed Iran’s ability to manage the crisis at home.
Ankara, meanwhile, has moved to defuse the situation. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, to stress the need for negotiations to prevent further escalation, according to Turkish diplomatic sources cited by Anadolu.
Turkey has also kept lines open with Washington as Trump’s threats have grown louder.
Fidan has accused Iran’s rivals of trying to exploit the unrest, pointing directly at Israel’s intelligence apparatus.
“Mossad doesn’t hide it. They are calling on the Iranian people to revolt against the regime through their own internet and Twitter accounts,” he said earlier this week.
Iran calls for UN to condemn US threats
Iran has urged the United Nations to condemn what it described as a US attempt to “destabilise” the country, after President Trump on Tuesday called on protesters to seize state institutions.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said Trump’s social media posts “explicitly encourage political destabilisation, incite and invite violence, and threaten the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The letter followed a post by Trump on his Truth Social platform in which he wrote: “Iranian patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! … HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
Asked by reporters what he meant by “help is on its way”, Trump said he would “have to figure that out”.
Iravani said Trump’s language must be viewed in the context of recent hostilities against Iran by the United States and Israel.
“The statement explicitly made today by the President of the United States, calling for the ‘taking over of institutions’, must be understood in the context of the failure of the 12-day war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran in June 2025, and as an integral component of a broader regime-change policy,” he wrote.
Israel killed around 1,000 Iranians in the short conflict last year.
Iravani added that the US and Israel "bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility" for civilian deaths as a result of destabilisation in Iran.
U.S. 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… pic.twitter.com/aBvww5JqWQ
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) January 13, 2026
The Iranian envoy called on the UN secretary-general and the Security Council to act under the UN Charter, urging them to “unequivocally” condemn “all forms of incitement to violence, threats to use force and interference in Iran’s internal affairs by the United States”.
He also asked the UN to “urge the United States and the Israeli regime to immediately cease destabilising policies and practices, comply fully with their obligations under international law, and refrain from any acts of military aggression”.
Protests in Iran began on 28 December, triggered by soaring prices and a worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Trump has issued repeated warnings to the Iranian government against killing protesters, threatening intervention if they are harmed.
He has since escalated his rhetoric and is reportedly assessing options for intervention.
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