Iran executed at least 1,639 people last year, the highest number recorded since 1989, according to a report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM). This represents a 68% increase compared to 2024, when 975 executions were recorded. The report states that most of those hanged were convicted of drug-related offences or murder, but at least 57 were convicted of security-related charges, including two protesters.
The NGOs warn that Iranian authorities could use executions even more extensively this year in the wake of January's protests and the war against the US and Israel. Since the start of the conflict on 28 February, seven people have been executed in connection with the protests, when thousands of demonstrators were killed and tens of thousands detained during an unprecedented crackdown by security forces. Six people convicted of membership in the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) have also been executed, along with one person convicted of spying for Israel.
According to the report, 795 of the 1,639 people executed were convicted of drug-related offences, a 58% increase compared to 2024, and 747 were convicted of murder, representing a 79% increase. Another 37 people were convicted of rape. At least 48 women were executed, a 55% increase from 2024 and the highest number recorded in over 20 years. Ethnic minorities and other marginalised groups were disproportionately represented among those executed.
Just over half of the executions were based on sentences handed down by Revolutionary Courts after what the NGOs describe as "grossly unfair trials and without due process". IHR and ECPM warn that, if Iran "survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression". At least 16 people sentenced to death in connection with the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests remain at risk of execution, while 27 others have been sentenced to death over protests at the start of this year, and hundreds more are facing charges carrying the death penalty.
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, told AFP news agency that the question of abolishing the death penalty had to be "at the heart" of any talks between the US and Iran on ending their war. IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam noted that there was "no mention of the Iranian people's rights" at the weekend negotiations, and said a death penalty moratorium and the release of all political prisoners should be "demand number one".
Source: www.bbc.com