NGOs denounce 251 executions in Iran since the beginning of the year, twice as many as in all of 2021

July 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) has denounced this Friday that 251 people, including six women and 67 members of the Baloch minority, have been executed in Iran since the beginning of the year; a number that doubles the total number of executions in all of 2021.

The organization points out that its balance only includes those executions that it has been able to verify by multiple sources, so the real number could be even higher, and highlights in particular the period between May 7 and June 30, coinciding with a series of protests led by the country’s influential merchant associations over the economic crisis.

The director of IHRNGO, Mahmud Amirimoghadam, has denounced that “the fundamental objective of these executions is to inspire fear among the population to avoid new protests” and calls on the international community to “impose a political cost on Iran to stop this wave” of executions.

Regarding the figures for 2022, the NGO also denounces the secrecy of the executions, of which only 31 have been announced by the country’s media or through official channels. It also specifies that more than half of those executed, 141, had been convicted of murder, another 91 for crimes related to drug trafficking and 13 for rape.

Six of them were convicted of the crime of “moharebeh” (enmity towards God), four of them were described as political prisoners and two were found guilty of carrying out armed robberies.

The group also emphasizes that executed Baluch account for 27 per cent of those executed, although the demographic group only represents between 2 and 6 per cent of the country’s total population.