U.N.'s Guterres Avoided Mentioning Iran Executions Despite Protests

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday. This encounter took place while Iranians detained since the nationwide protests of January continue to face prison sentences, alleged torture, and a rising tally of death sentences and executions. The U.N. readout covering the meeting, which happened alongside the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, noted that Guterres highlighted the humanitarian and economic fallout from the conflict involving Iran. He also pushed for diplomacy and respect for international law. Notably, the official summary made no mention of how Iran treats its protesters, the ongoing executions, or claims of torture. When Fox News Digital asked at Tuesday's U.N. briefing whether Guterres brought these specific issues directly to Pezeshkian and why they were left out of the written record, spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric replied that he had nothing to add to the readout. However, Dujarric did clarify that Guterres has raised those same concerns with senior Iranian officials during other meetings in New York and elsewhere. I can tell you that in other meetings with senior Iranian leaders... the secretary-general has raised those issues directly, Dujarric stated from the podium on behalf of his chief. We have condemned in no uncertain terms the use of the death penalty in Iran as we stand against it in every country. This exchange arrives while human rights organizations report that Tehran's crackdown persists months after the demonstrations began. Iran International reported on Aug. 7, citing rights groups, that more than 60,000 people were detained across Iran following the protests, whereas some independent sources put the number of those summoned, detained, or interrogated above 100,000. In Ardabil province alone, roughly 800 people were arrested during the unrest, according to a report citing 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 confirm the punishments keep coming. 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 that 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 during 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 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. Among those imprisoned is Seyed Ahmad Seyedabdollahi, a 32-year-old psychologist whose case Fox News Digital reported on in August. Seyedabdollahi posted an English-language video Jan. 4 appealing directly to President Donald Trump to support Iranian protesters.

A man faced arrest ten days after his initial trouble and eventually got a seven-month prison term plus a five-year ban from government work and public services. His family told Fox News Digital that Iranian officials later forced him to film another video insulting Donald Trump and the American people. Fox News could not check those specific demands on its own, but IranWire reported Aug. 11 that security officers made him read an anti-Trump script while pointing a camera at his face. The report says he kept refusing even as threats loomed over him according to claims of coercion.

His relatives also said Seyedabdollahi endured solitary confinement and torture inside the facility. Hana Human Rights Organization wrote Aug. 9 that he sat in Borujen Prison since July 7 while authorities opened a second case against him for alleged "propaganda against the system of the Islamic Republic." The charge adds weight to his legal troubles and limits what he can do once released from custody.

The fate of Iran's detainees also came up Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council as France took over the rotating presidency for September. The official presidency list shows France holding that role with Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont serving as council president during this month. Asked by Fox News Digital whether France planned to address Iranians detained after recent protests and reports of torture or executions, Bonnafont said the central focus would remain on Tehran's nuclear program. He stressed those discussions would not happen "in a vacuum."

"You referred to this matter with the situation of the civilian population in Iran," Bonnafont told Fox News Digital based on 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." His words point directly at long-standing policies that hurt ordinary citizens rather than just political opponents.

Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian American environmentalist who spent years behind bars before his release in a 2023 prisoner swap with the United States, previously described conditions inside the Iranian prison system to Fox News Digital. He said he spent four months alone in a small cell under a bright light that stayed on twenty-four hours each day. He was allowed out twice daily for about ten minutes but wore a blindfold whenever he left his 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." One of the hardest parts, Tahbaz noted, is knowing that even when a sentence ends it does not necessarily mean freedom awaits outside those walls. "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." This reality traps people in legal limbo where new accusations replace old ones without any real hope of release.