How Iran survives - Defectors expose the secret apparatus

DW Documentary · 27:01

518,812 views · 3,730 likes · Oct 12, 2026

How do you make a soldier shoot at unarmed protestors? Iran's regime has spent 40 years perfecting the answer. In this DW investigation, two high-ranking defectors expose the brutal system of repression.

"No one says: shoot. The order is: stop the protest. How you do it — is up to you."
Two high-ranking defectors — a former intelligence officer and a commander in Iran's elite special forces — w…

How do you make a soldier shoot at unarmed protestors? Iran's regime has spent 40 years perfecting the answer. In this DW investigation, two high-ranking defectors expose the brutal system of repression.

"No one says: shoot. The order is: stop the protest. How you do it — is up to you."
Two high-ranking defectors — a former intelligence officer and a commander in Iran's elite special forces — w…

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