MAt least 834 people were executed in Iran last year, according to a report by human rights organizations. This is the highest number since 2015 and an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the previous year, the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Paris-based organization Together Against the Death Penalty said in Paris on Tuesday. At the end of last year, the IHR reported a significant increase in executions.
“Inciting fear in society is the regime’s only way to stay in power, and the death penalty is its main tool,” IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in the report.
The number of death sentences imposed for drug abuse has increased particularly sharply. Last year, 471 people were executed because of this, 18 times more than in 2020.
Members of ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among those executed. Members of the Sunni Baloch minority, who live in southeastern Iran, made up around a fifth of those executed in 2023, even though their share of the population was only five percent.
Most death sentences would be carried out by hanging in prison. However, there were also seven public executions. Those executed included at least 22 women.
Only about 15 percent of the executions were officially announced. The Iran Human Rights organization confirmed the others from its own sources.
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