I note that you put the word "protestors" in inverted commas.
Amnesty International point out that senior state officials in Iran labelled the protesters as “rioters” - is that how you think of them too?
On 3 January 2026, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, denounced protesters as “rioters” who should be “put in their place”.
On 17 January, in a public speech, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, said “thousands of people” were killed. Since then, on 21January, Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security issued a statement that 3,117 people were killed during the uprising.
However, on 16 January 2026, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, said in a media interview that at least 5,000 people had been killed, noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000 . Due to the ongoing internet shutdown, the scale of mass killings that took place and Iranian authorities’ well-documented pattern of carrying out reprisals against families of victims who speak out, the true number of those killed is likely higher.
The ongoing internet shutdown prevents people in Iran from communicating with the outside world. This makes gathering and verifying information difficult.
Verified videos and eyewitness accounts Amnesty International has been able to obtain and review, reveal security forces carrying out mass unlawful killings on an unprecedented scale amid the shutdown.
In the aftermath of the massacres on 8 to9 January, medical facilities were overwhelmed with injured protesters, while distraught families gathered at hospitals and overflowing morgues, searching for their missing loved ones.
www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-happened-at-the-protests-in-iran/