According to two rights organizations, Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty, executions 75% more people held by Iran in 2022 than in prior years.
They mention at least 582 executions, the most since 2015, and condemn a “execution machine” designed to instill fear.
In September of last year, countrywide protests erupted in response to the death of Mahsa Amini. A 22-year-old ethnic Kurd who had been imprisoned for allegedly breaching the severe dress restrictions for women.
The government responded with a crackdown that saw four individuals hanged in protest-related instances. Eliciting international condemnation.
While the international reaction was keeping protest-related killings in check. IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam states, Iran was going ahead with executions on other crimes in order to terrify the general people.
“International reactions to protesters’ death sentences have made it difficult for the Islamic Republic to carry out their executions,” he stated.
“In order to compensate, and to instill fear in the public, Iran authorities have increased the number of executions for non-political offences.” “These are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s execution machine,” he continues.
More protesters face death penalty
According to the report, four individuals were hanged on protest-related charges. One hundred more demonstrators faced execution after being condemned to death or facing accusations carrying the death penalty.
The report highlighted concern over a dramatic increase in drug-related executions following the protests.
A decrease in the number of drug-related executions has been attributed to 2017 modifications to the anti-narcotics law. Which resulted in a decrease in the overall number of executions in Iran up to 2021.
More than half of those executed following the commencement of the demonstrations were on drug-related charges. As were 44 percent of the 582 executions reported in 2022.
This was more than double the number in 2021 and ten times the number of drug-related executions in 2020.
Rights organisations criticised the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and its donor countries for failing to respond to the “dramatic surge” in drug trafficking.
“The UNODC and donor countries’ lack of reaction to the reversal of these reforms (of 2017) sends the wrong signal to the Iranian authorities,” ECPM head Raphael Chenuil-Hazan said.
According to the research, members of Iran’s largely Sunni Muslim Baluch minority accounted for 30 percent of all executions. Although being only 2-6 percent of the country’s population.
The amount of ethnic minority Kurds and Arabs executed was similarly disproportionate, particularly for narcotics charges. Report states.