Iranian officials signaled that fast trials and executions lay ahead for suspects detained in nationwide protests. More than 18,000 people are reported to have been detained.

Today, defenseless people inside Iran are crying out to you, asking for help as they face these ongoing crimes against humanity,” Googoosh wrote in a letter to President Trump.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday "there is no plan" by Iran to hang people, when asked about the anti-government protests in the Middle Eastern nation.

Iran chief justice Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei calls for fast trials and executions of suspects in ongoing anti-government demonstrations, a report said.

A source inside Iran who was able to call out told CBS News on Tuesday that activist groups working to compile a full death toll from the protests, based on reports from medical officials across the country, believed the toll was at least 12,000, and possibly as high as 20,000.

Nationwide protests in Iran are putting new pressure on its theocracy as the country faces an economic crisis.

Iran's internet blockade fails to stop protest footage leaks via Starlink as authorities reportedly kill at least 646 demonstrators in ongoing crackdown.