On April 21, US President Donald Trump claimed, by relaying their portraits, that eight women arrested by the Iranian regime were about to be executed. Pro-Iranian accounts claim these photos were “AI-generated.” But the identity of the demonstrators was confirmed by two NGOs. However, only one was sentenced to death.

Published on: 04/23/2026 - 6:58 p.m.

It was on his social network Truth Social that Donald Trump announced that eight Iranian women, arrested by the Iranian regime during the heavily repressed demonstrations held in January 2026, were threatened with execution.

His message, which directly asked the Iranian authorities to release these prisoners, was accompanied by a gallery of portraits showing eight faces, already relayed online by several accounts on X.

Also read “Nothing but blood and bullet casings”: exclusive testimony from an Iranian protester

“Trump saved eight AI-generated people”

But in the hours that followed, several accounts, often supporters of the Iranian regime, claimed that these women did not exist, and that their portraits had been created by artificial intelligence (AI). “Trump begs Iranian leaders not to execute eight AI-generated women,” claimed an anti-Israeli account, whose post on X has been viewed more than two million times.

This version was even supported by the Iranian authorities on April 22: after Donald Trump claimed the day after his first publication that the eight women had ultimately not been sentenced to death thanks to his request, the Iranian embassy in South Africa responded by affirming that he had just "saved eight people generated by AI".

Real demonstrators, including one sentenced to death

In this informational battle, Donald Trump and the Iranian embassy in South Africa both shared false information: on the one hand, the eight women do exist. On the other hand, only one of them risks the death penalty.

These eight women were all identified by the two main NGOs which recorded deaths and arrests during the December 2025 and January 2026 protests in Iran, Human Rights activist in Iran (HRA) and Iran Human Rights (IHR), based on field sources.

Contacted by our editorial staff, the deputy director of HRA, Skylar Thomson, confirmed that these women are "real" and were arrested during demonstrations, but specified that only one of them, Bita Hemmati, was sentenced to death according to information from her NGO. These agree with those of Iran Human Rights, contacted by the verification media Lead Stories.

Also read: Demonstrations in Iran: what do we know about the different victim tolls of the regime's repression?

Bita Hemmati's death sentence has already been widely reported in numerous media in recent days, and other photos of her match her portrait relayed by Donald Trump.

What about the other seven demonstrators? The two NGOs agree that Mahboubeh Shabani was arrested on February 2 and imprisoned in Mashhad prison. The IHR also claims that she, too, is threatened with a death sentence, just like Diana Taher Abadi, a 16-year-old girl arrested in January.

HRA and IHR also confirm the disappearance of protester Panah Movahedi following the most violently repressed demonstrations on January 9. According to the IHR, 37-year-old emergency physician Golnaz Naraghi and Venus Hosseinnejad were released, unlike Ensieh Nejati, still in prison according to HRA. The fate of the 16-year-old girl Ghazal Ghalandari, arrested in Yasuj on January 20, is uncertain. HRA indicates in any case that it has no information on a possible death sentence.

For these demonstrators, photos of them online also match their portrait distributed by Donald Trump.

Contradictions between embassies

The Iranian embassy in South Africa seems in any case to have wanted to surf on accusations that had gone viral online, while knowing that these women existed. Because almost an hour before the publication accusing Donald Trump of talking about people generated by AI, the Iranian embassy in Sierra Leone had responded to the head of state on

A contradiction which symbolizes the online informational battle waged by the Iranian regime against the United States, even if it means playing with reality.

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