Iranian prosecutor denies Trump's claim 800 prisoners were spared
execution
[January 23, 2026]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday
called U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the
hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.” Meanwhile,
the overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide
demonstrations rose to at least 5,002, activists said.
Activists fear many more are dead. They struggle to confirm information
as the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran's history has
crossed the two-week mark.
Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as an American
aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East, something Trump
likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists late Thursday.
Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out
strikes, though so far he's avoided that despite repeated warnings to
Tehran. The mass execution of prisoners had been one of his red lines
for military force — the other being the killing of peaceful
demonstrators.
“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under
pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would
be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be
moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” New
York-based think tank the Soufan Center said in an analysis Friday.
Prosecutor denies Trump claim
Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people
detained in the protests, without elaborating on the source of the
claim. On Friday, Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly
denied that in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
“This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the
judiciary made any such decision,” Movahedi said.
His remarks suggested that Iran’s Foreign Ministry, led by Abbas
Araghchi, may have offered that figure to Trump. Araghchi has had a
direct line to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and conducted multiple rounds of
negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with him.
“We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each
institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances,
take instructions from foreign powers,” Movahedi said.
Judiciary officials have called some of those being held “mohareb” — or
“enemies of God.” That charge carries the death penalty. It had been
used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that
reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Haji Ali Akbari, the Friday prayer leader in
Tehran, mocked Trump as a “yellow-faced, yellow-haired and disgraced
man" who is "like a dog that only barks.”
“That foolish man has resorted to threatening the nation, especially
over what he said about Iran’s leader,” the cleric said in comments
aired by Iranian state radio. ”If any harm were to occur, all your
interests and bases in the region would become clear and precise targets
of Iranian forces.”
Death toll rises
The latest death toll was given by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists
News Agency, which reported that 4,716 of the dead were demonstrators,
203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians
not taking part in the protests. It added that more than 26,800 people
had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.
The group's figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and
rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll
exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades,
and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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In this photo released by an official website of the office of the
Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks
in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of
the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying
3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the
demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security
forces, with the rest being “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s
theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the
death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the
internet and blocking international calls into the country.
US warships on the move
The American military meanwhile has moved more military assets
toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South
China Sea.
A U.S. 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 U.S. is moving the
ships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.
“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we
won’t have to use it,” Trump said.
Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks that American
officials had with Iran over its nuclear program prior to Israel
launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which
saw U.S. warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran
with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against
its uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
The U.K. Defense Ministry separately said that its joint Eurofighter
Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, “deployed to
the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions.”
Iran shows off drones in Israel threat
Iran commemorated “the Day of the Guardian” on Friday, an annual
event for its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in
putting down the nationwide protests.
To mark the day, an Iranian state television channel aired a
typically religious talk show Thursday night that instead saw its
cleric and prayer singers look at Iranian military drones. They
fired up the engines of several of the Shahed drones, one version of
which has been used extensively by Russia in its war on Ukraine.
A man identified as a member of the security forces, who wore a
surgical mask and sunglasses during the telecast to hide his
identity, also made a threat in mangled Hebrew toward Israel, trying
to say: “We are closer to you than you think.”
___
Konstantin Toropin in Washington, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv,
Israel, contributed to this report.
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