What seemed to be a new stage of reformism for the Iranian regime has ended in wet paper. Whoever presented himself as a message of change and hope and who brought moderation and reformism to Iran has become a false promise. Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been in the Golestan Palace (presidential residence) for just two months, has participated in multiple executions, adding more than 250 prisoners since the beginning of his mandate.
Pezeshkian presented himself as the “reformist” candidate, advocating the opening of the Ayatollah regime to the international community as well as a rapprochement with the Western bloc in order to relaunch its economy and neutralize – or alleviate – the strong regional tensions. But after just over two months at the head of the Iranian Government and with alarming numbers of executionsIn addition to his way of approaching the relationship with the West – including Israel – Pezeshkian makes it clear that there will be no changes in the Persian country.
Sixteen executions in one day
Tehran authorities executed at least sixteen people in a single dayaccording to a report by the Iranian Human Rights Organization. This Wednesday they executed in the Karaj central prison thirteen men and one woman. On the same day, but in the central prison of Urmia, two other prisoners were sentenced to death. The charges against these prisoners were “premeditated murder”, “rape” and drug-related crimes, for which they were sentenced to death.
Those executed varied between young people barely 30 years old even retirees, including a woman. According to Amnesty International, Iran has reached its highest level of death row convicts in the last eight years: in 2023 alone, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary executed 853 people.
Protesters in London against executions in Iran | EP
These figures represent a 89% increase in death sentences for drug-related crimes compared to data from 2022, when just over 250 convicts were executed. The latest figures also show an increase of 264% compared to 2021, the year in which 132 people were executed on similar charges.
2024 data
According to the Iranian Human Rights Organizationin 2024 there have been, to date, 570 executionsa figure that may differ from reality due to the lack of transparency of the ayatollah regime in this matter. Since 2010, this organization has been counting capital punishments carried out 8399 have been executed in the Persian country. During the fourteen years that data has been collected, 71 minors and 229 women have been executed. And so far this year, 19 women and one minor have been sentenced to capital punishment, and it has been carried out.
Iran: highest number of executions
Since 2015, Iran has led the ranking of countries where there have been the most executions in the world. In 2023 alone, the number of those sentenced to the death penalty – and consequently executed – rose to 853 known people, being the highest number in the last two decades. So far this year, according to data provided by Iran Human Right (IHR), the ayatollah regime has executed more than 500 people, with a record August that has resulted in three sentences carried out each day and a total of 93 dead inmates. According to the same data, of the total number of capital sentences carried out this year, at least 15 prisoners were women and another five were minors at the time they committed the crime.
A protest in Rome against executions in Iran | EP
According to data provided by a study carried out by the World Coalition against the Death Penalty85% of Iranians oppose capital punishment and when it involves a minor, the percentage increases considerably. That same number of people reject the practice of public executions, something that is now a minority throughout the country, but which continues to be carried out, especially in more isolated areas of large cities.
According to a United Nations report, the Tehran government makes no effort to reduce executions and denounces that they continue to be carried out for minor crimes such as robbery or drug trafficking: “The international pact on civil and political rights, of which Iran is a party, restricts the application of the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’ understood as homicide intentional”.
Executions for minor crimes
More than half of the executions carried out in Iran have been for minor crimes. Of the 853 capital sentences imposed, 481 were for drug traffickingjust over 50%; 292 for homicide; 22 for rape and the remaining 58 for crimes against religion and the state (also including blasphemy, adultery and other unspecified crimes).
The shariathe Islamic legal system, which in Arabic literally means “the clear path to water”, is – in short – a code of conduct that defines all aspects of the life of the Muslim community, with rules that concern everything from prayers to fasting or daily behavior.
Among said regulations, three casuistries are provided under which capital punishment can be imposed: the ‘qisas’, the eye for eye; the hudud, the offenses to religion and ta’zir, those crimes considered negative or harmful to the state or for the coexistence of society.
The number of those sentenced to capital punishment is actually greater than the number of those executed, but since the figure of the ‘sorry’many of the families upset by a crime grant said pardon to the convicted person in exchange for the accused serving an alternative sentence.
Among the reasons for capital punishment in Iran, the United Nations points out that at least six of the prisoners executed were for political reasons, such as participation in the massive demonstrations against the regime of the ayatollahs of 2022 after the death of the young Mahsa Amini when she was in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the veil.
Pezeshkian, who presented himself as a figure of moderation and was very critical during his campaign against capital punishment, but since entering the Golestan Palace at the end of July he has not stopped the executions, continuing these in the first months of his mandate and even reaching record figures in the month of August.
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