Iran’s prosecutor denies Trump’s claims that 800 prisoners survived execution

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he stopped the hanging of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.” Meanwhile, activists said the total death toll from the bloody crackdown on demonstrations across the country had risen to at least 5,032 people.

He watches: Trump praised Iran for canceling hundreds of executions

Activists fear that the death toll may be higher. They are struggling to confirm information, as the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran’s history has passed the two-week mark.

Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as a US aircraft carrier group approaches the Middle East, which Trump likened to an “fleet” in comments to reporters late Thursday.

Analysts say the military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, although he has so far avoided this despite repeated warnings to Tehran. The mass execution of prisoners was one of his red lines for military force, while the other line was the killing of peaceful demonstrators.

He watches: With the US pledge of aid unfulfilled, the Iranian uprising faces a brutal crackdown

“While President Trump appears to have backed down now, likely under pressure from regional leaders and his realization that airstrikes alone will not be enough to collapse the regime, military assets are continuing to move into the region, indicating that kinetic action may still be occurring,” the New York-based Soufan Center, a think tank, said in an analysis on Friday.

Attorney General denies Trump’s claims

Trump has repeatedly said that Iran has halted the executions of 800 people arrested in the protests, without clarifying the source of this claim. On Friday, Iranian Prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly denied this in statements reported by the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency.

Movahedi said: “This claim is completely false. There is no such number, and the judiciary has not taken any such decision.”

His statements suggest that the Iranian Foreign Ministry, led by Abbas Araghchi, may have presented this number to Trump. Araqchi had a direct line with US envoy Steve Witkoff and held several rounds of negotiations with him about the Iranian nuclear program.

“We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, receive instructions from foreign powers,” Movahedi said.

Judicial officials called some detainees “warriors” or “enemies of God.” This charge carries the death penalty. It was used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988, which reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.

Read more: Iran says 3,117 were killed in recent protests, meaning the death toll is lower than that of human rights activists

At a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Iran held in Geneva on Friday, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern about “contradictory statements from the Iranian authorities on whether detainees detained in connection with the protests could be executed.”

He said Iran “remains among the countries with the highest death penalty in the world,” with at least 1,500 people reportedly executed last year — a 50% increase from 2024.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, the imam of Friday prayers in Tehran, mocked Trump as a “yellow-faced, yellow-haired, disgraceful man” who is “like a dog that only barks.”

The cleric said in statements broadcast on Iranian state radio: “This foolish man has resorted to threatening the nation, especially with regard to what he said about the Iranian leader.” He added, “If any damage occurs, all your interests and bases in the region will become clear and precise targets for Iranian forces.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry criticized a European Parliament resolution adopted on Thursday that criticized “the repression and mass killing committed by the Iranian regime against demonstrators in Iran.” The resolution called for the release of detainees and urged the European Council to designate Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was instrumental in suppressing protests across the country, as a terrorist organization.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “deep disgust at the insulting assertions” contained in the resolution. In a statement issued on Friday, she stressed that “any illegal or intrusive decision or position related to the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and those defending the country’s security will be met with reciprocal action on the part of Iran, and the responsibility for the consequences will lie with those who initiate such actions.”

High death toll

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency released the latest death toll, reporting that more than 4,700 of those killed were protesters. She added that more than 27,600 people were arrested in an expanded arrest campaign.

The group’s numbers have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. This death toll exceeds any other round of protests or unrest there in decades, and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Iranian government announced its first death toll on Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had been killed. She added that 2,427 of those killed in the demonstrations that began on December 28 were civilians and security forces, and the rest were “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s clerical government undercounted or underreported deaths resulting from the unrest.

Read more: Analysts warn that the Iranian crisis carries potential nuclear risks. Here’s what you should know

The Associated Press was unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because authorities cut off internet access and blocked international calls to the country.

American warships are moving

At the same time, the US military has moved more military assets toward the Middle East, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South China Sea.

A US Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.

Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the United States was moving ships toward Iran “just in case” he wanted to take action.

“We have a huge fleet headed in this direction and we probably won’t have to use it,” Trump said.

Trump also pointed to multiple rounds of talks US officials had with Iran over its nuclear program before Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw US warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make previous US strikes against uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”

“They had to come to an agreement before we hit them,” Trump said.

The British Ministry of Defense said separately that its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, had “deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes in reference to regional tensions.”

Konstantin Torobin in Washington, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Melanie Leidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.