Iran threatens protesters with ‘death penalty’ charges as 72 killed, over 2,300 detained in govt crackdown

Iran anti-government protest updates: Iran Saturday escalated its threats against protesters as demonstrations across the country neared the two-week mark, with authorities signalling a harsher crackdown even as unrest continued in several cities despite severe restrictions on information flow.

Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warned that anyone taking part in the protests would be considered an “enemy of God”, a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law. The comments were reported by Iranian state television.

The statement said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge. “Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”

Senior officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have already signalled that a nationwide crackdown was imminent.

Protests that began nearly two weeks ago have intensified in recent days, though assessing their full scale has become increasingly difficult. Iran has shut down the internet and cut international phone lines, limiting information from inside the country.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 72 people have been killed and more than 2,300 detained since the demonstrations began. Iranian state television has instead focused on reporting casualties among security forces while projecting an image of control.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered support for the protesters. “The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote Saturday on the social platform X.

The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

Saturday marked the start of the work week in Iran. State television reported that many schools and universities were holding online classes and said internal government websites were still functioning.

State TV repeatedly aired pro-government demonstrations set to a martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, a piece closely associated with the Iran-Iraq war.

“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor said, adding that there was “no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces.”

However, an online video verified by news agency The Associated Press showed thousands of demonstrators in Tehran’s Saadat Abad area. “Death to Khamenei!” a man could be heard chanting.

The semiofficial Fars news agency released what it said was surveillance footage from protests in Isfahan, showing a protester firing a long gun while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.

The Young Journalists’ Club, affiliated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij force in Gachsaran. It also said a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, while one person was slain in Mashhad.

State television also aired footage of a funeral in Qom attended by hundreds.

Despite the crackdown, more demonstrations were being planned. Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi called on people to protest again on Saturday and Sunday, urging them to carry Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols to “claim public spaces as your own.”

The protests began on December 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial, which is trading at over 1.4 million to the dollar, as Iran’s economy remains squeezed by international sanctions linked in part to its nuclear programme. What started as economic anger has since evolved into direct challenges to the country’s theocratic system.

Air travel has also been affected. Austrian Airlines said Saturday it would suspend flights to Iran through Monday “as a precautionary measure,” while Turkish Airlines earlier cancelled 17 flights to three Iranian cities.