Executions soared by 43% following mass protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s loss of life.
Iran executed at the least 834 folks in 2023, the second highest variety of executions prior to now 20 years, in accordance with a report printed by human rights teams.
A report launched on Tuesday by the Norway-based Iranian Human Rights Group (IHR) and the Paris-based Coalition Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) discovered that final yr’s 43% spike in executions was triggered nationwide. This means that it’s a response to the protests. Due to the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.
However, whereas 9 executions had been instantly associated to assaults on safety forces throughout the 2022 protests, executions had been additionally enhanced in reference to different expenses. Drug-related circumstances accounted for greater than half of the whole, with 471 folks executed for drug-related crimes.
The report additionally famous that ethnic minorities, significantly the Sunni Baluch folks of southeastern Iran, “represented a major majority of these executed.”
At least 167 members of the Baluch minority had been killed final yr, accounting for 20% of the whole. Minorities make up about 5% of Iran’s inhabitants.
IHR Director Mahmoud Amily Moghaddam described the determine as a “staggering whole”.
“Instilling worry in society is the one strategy to preserve the regime, and the loss of life penalty is the regime’s most essential software,” he mentioned.
According to experiences, this picture posted on October 26, 2022 on A lady is pictured standing bare on prime of a automobile because it heads to the Aich cemetery in Sakez.Increased safety as a part of bloody crackdown on women-led protests [UGC via AFP]
He additionally referred to as on the world to take a stand in opposition to the Iranian authorities’s executions.
Most executions will happen inside prisons, however seven can be carried out in public, a major improve from 2022, in accordance with the report.
At least 22 girls had been executed final yr, the very best quantity in a decade, the report added.
Fifteen folks had been hanged on suspicion of homicide. NGOs have lengthy warned that girls who kill abusive companions or relations danger execution.
Last yr, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk mentioned the spate of loss of life sentences because the outbreak of the civil conflict amounted to “state-sanctioned homicide”.
In response, Iranian High Council for Human Rights Secretary-General Kazem Gharib Abadi mentioned the institution of the mission was “an unacceptable transfer that’s fully politically motivated.”