Judicial executions in Iran increased 75% in 2022, with 582 hangings, according to two human rights organizations that denounce a “killing machine” designed to “instill fear” in the country.
Since September 2022, Iran has been rocked for weeks by mass protests triggered by the death in police custody of the Iranian-Kurdish Mahsa Amini, detained for not respecting the dress code imposed on women in the country.
Iranian authorities violently cracked down on the movement, with four hangings directly linked to and quickly condemned by the international community.
The figure of at least 582 executions is the highest in the Islamic Republic since 2015, after a total of 333 executions in 2021, according to the Norway-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Ensemble Contra. la Peine de Mort (ECPM), based in Paris.
The death penalty was “once again used as the latest instrument of intimidation and oppression by the Iranian regime to maintain the stability of its power,” the NGOs said in a joint report published today.
“To instill fear in the public and in the young protesters, the authorities have intensified executions of prisoners convicted for reasons other than political ones,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.
“To stop the killing machine created by the Iranian regime, the international community and civil society, on the ground or not, must actively show their opposition every time a person is executed in the country,” he defended.
The report also states that around 100 detainees are currently on death row or facing charges that risk the death penalty.
According to the same NGOs, the number of convictions in drug trafficking cases has increased considerably, despite a 2017 amendment to the drug trafficking law that resulted in a significant drop in the statistics for 2021.
More than half of the convicts executed after the start of the protests, and 44% of the executions registered in 2022, were linked to drug trafficking cases. This is double the number in 2021 and ten times the number in 2020.
The authors of the report also denounced the passivity of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this regard.
“The lack of reaction from UNODC and affiliated countries does not send the right message to the Iranian authorities. The abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offenses must be a condition for future cooperation between UNODC and Iran,” ECPM Director Raphael said. Chenuil-Hazan.
According to the report, members of the Baluchi minority, mainly Sunnis, account for 30% of executions, although they represent between 2 and 6% of the population.
Source: TSF
