Executions in Iran rose by 25 percent last year, a report by two leading non-governmental organizations said yesterday, expressing alarm over a surge in the numbers executed for drug offenses and also the hanging of at least 17 women.
The rate of executions in Iran also accelerated after the election in June last year of former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi to the presidency, said the report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France’s Together Against the Death Penalty.
The report urged world powers negotiating with Iran on reviving a deal on its nuclear program to put use of capital punishment in the Islamic republic — which executes more people annually then any nation other than China — at the center of the talks.
Photo: EPA-EFE
At least 333 people were executed last year, a 25 percent increase compared with 267 in 2020, said the report, based on official media, but also sources inside Iran.
At least 126 executions were for drug-related charges, five times higher than 2020’s figure of 25.
This marked a major reversal of a trend of a decline in drug-related executions since Iran in 2017 adopted amendments to its anti-narcotics law in the face of international pressure.
More than 80 percent of executions were not officially announced, including all those for drug-related offences, it said.
The report “reveals an increase in the number of executions, an alarming rise in the implementation of death sentences for drug offences and an ongoing lack of transparency”, the groups said.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam expressed concern that there was “less scrutiny” on Iran’s rights record as powers focused on bringing the nuclear negotiations to a positive conclusion.
“There will be no sustainable [deal] ... unless the situation of human rights in general and the death penalty in particular, are central parts of the negotiations,” he said.
The report said that at least 17 women were executed last year, compared with nine in 2020. Twelve were sentenced for murder and five on drug-related charges.
There has been growing concern over the numbers of women executed on charges of murdering a husband or relative who advocates believe might have been abusive.
It cited the case of Zahra Esmaili, who shot her husband dead in 2017. It said she was executed in February last year and might have had a heart attack before being hanged after watching others suffer the same fate before her.
In another case, Maryam Karimi was convicted for the murder of her husband and was hanged in March last year, with her daughter personally carrying out the execution by kicking away the stool as is allowed under Iranian law.
The report also expressed concern that the execution of ethnic minorities also continued to rise, accounting for a disproportionately large number of those hanged last year.
Prisoners from the Baluch minority accounted for 21 percent of all executions last year, although they only represent 2 to 6 percent of Iran’s population, it said.
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