The denunciation of the report published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort. In 2022, the number of people hanged increased by 75% compared to previous years. The aim is to “instill fear and terror” to stop the demonstrations in favor of Mahsa Amini. Among those executed, drug crimes and minorities, especially Kurds and Baluchis, are increasing.
Tehran () – In 2022, the Iranian government increased the number of people hanged by 75% compared to previous years, and continued to prepare the executioner during the first months of this year with the aim of “intimidating” the population and stop street protests, taking advantage of convictions for drug crimes. This was denounced today by two NGOs defending human rights, who described the Islamic Republic as an “execution machine” whose ultimate objective is to “instill fear and terror” among its inhabitants. Most of the hangings (288, that is, 49% of the total) are for murder, the highest figure in 15 years, but it is also a resource used against crimes related to drug consumption and trafficking.
The report published today by the Norwegian organization Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Paris-based NGO Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) mentions 582 executions carried out last year (but the numbers could be higher), the most high since 2015 and well above 333 in 2021. What set up the executioner and prompted the authorities to resort to capital punishment in the first place was the massive wave of popular protests in response to the murder of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police for not wearing the hijab correctly. The demonstrations against the mandatory veil became a broader movement for freedom and rights, the largest and most participatory since the 1979 revolution, bloodily suppressed by the ayatollahs.
IHR Director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam noted that while the international reaction to executions linked to popular protest has curbed the use of the death penalty in this matter, Tehran continues to carry out executions for other crimes with the aim of intimidating the population. “International reactions to the death sentences against protesters have made it difficult for the Islamic Republic to proceed with their executions,” he stressed, adding that to compensate “and in order to sow fear, the authorities increased executions for non-political crimes. These are the so-called cheap victims of the execution machine” that is Iran today.
Regarding the protests, the report indicates that, after the first four protesters were executed, Tehran froze the hangings of the more than 100 death row inmates who are still in danger of ending up in the hands of the executioner. By contrast, there has been a steady increase in the number of people executed for drug offenses since the riots began in September last year, with other movements, including Amnesty International, accusing Iran of a “shocking escalation in the use of the penalty.” of death”, especially against Kurds and Balochis.
A decline in the number of drug-related executions – linked to the 2017 amendments to the Anti-Drug Law – had led to a collapse in the use of capital punishment until 2021. In contrast, more than half of those executed after the start of demonstrations and 44% of the 582 executions carried out last year were related to drug trafficking. A figure two times higher than in 2021 and 10 times higher than the number of executions for drug trafficking or consumption in 2020. At the same time, activist movements denounce the failure of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC) and sponsoring countries to take action against this “dramatic escalation”.
The study shows that members of the Baluchi minority, mainly Sunni Muslims, accounted for 30% of the total number of executions across the country, despite only accounting for 2-6% of the Iranian population. The number of Kurds and Arabs executed, especially for drug offences, was also disproportionate to the population. “The death penalty is part of the systematic discrimination and widespread repression to which ethnic minorities in Iran are subjected,” the report concludes.
