Iran executed at least 975 people in a “horrifying increase” in the death penalty last year, two human rights groups said on Thursday.
According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the French group Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), this is the highest number of death sentences handed down in Iran in 2024 since 2008.
Accusing Iran of using the death penalty as a ‘main weapon of political repression,’ the joint report said, “These figures show an alarming increase in the use of the death penalty in Iran in 2024.” “These executions are part of the Islamic Republic’s war against its own people to maintain its grip on power,” said Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, director of IHR.
“As the threat of war between Iran and Israel grows, an average of five people have been executed every day in the last three months of the year,” he said. In Iran, 834 people were executed in 2023. The report states that the number of people sentenced to death this year has increased by 17 percent compared to last year.
Of the 975 people executed, four were hanged in public and 31 were women.
Death penalty even for those who protest
Iran has become the world’s second-largest executioner after China, according to human rights groups, who accuse authorities of increasing their use of the death penalty to instill fear in the population after nationwide protests began in 2022.
The death penalty is a key pillar of the sharia-based judicial system established after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Western-backed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah).
Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape and drug offences, but rights activists say the death penalty is also being imposed using vague terms such as “conduct contrary to social values and human dignity” and “anti-state activities.” They say these terms are often used against dissidents who hold views that differ from the government.
In recent years, those sentenced to death have been executed mostly by hanging in prison premises and sometimes in public. However, other methods remain as prescribed in the statute books. Two people were executed last year during nationwide protests that began in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman who was arrested for violating Iran’s mandatory dress code.
Mohammad Ghobadlu, 23, was sentenced to death in January 2024 for killing a police officer by running him over with a car during a protest in October 2022. Human rights groups have accused his trial of being deeply flawed and judges of ignoring evidence presented by the defense that he suffered from bipolar disorder (manic depression).
Gholamreza Rassai, 34, was secretly executed last August for the killing of a Revolutionary Guardsman during the 2022 protests. Rights activists say his confession was extracted under torture. Rights groups have said they have evidence that Iran may have carried out additional executions last year, but they have not been able to confirm their reports.
They said that there were reports of 39 additional executions in 2024, which could not be confirmed by a second source. According to IHR data, Iran has executed at least 121 people this year.
