ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran executed 11 people in the past two days, a human rights organization said on Thursday, which is International Day Against the Death Penalty. More than 500 people have been put to death in the Islamic Republic this year.
The 11 executions were carried out at dawn on Wednesday and Thursday in Ghezel Hesar Prison of Karaj, Zahedan, and Urmia, reported the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Iran ranks second globally for known executions and the number of death penalties it carries out has dramatically risen in recent years, according to Amnesty International.
“In 2023, executions soared, with at least 853 people executed across the country, marking a 48% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase from 2021,” Amnesty reported in April.
So far this year, “at least 525 prisoners have been executed in various prisons across Iran,” Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on Thursday.
In the past year, 18 of those executed were women and 4 were minors at the time of their alleged crimes, according to HRANA.
Over 100 of the executed were Kurds, accounting for 21.5% of all executions, Hengaw said.
In 2023, Iran executed 144 Kurdish prisoners, a significant rise from 2022, when it executed 52 Kurds, Hengaw reported in December.
Iran’s latest executions come on the day when the international community is focused on abolishing the death penalty.
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, comprising more than 160 organizations, was founded in 2002 after the 1st World Congress Against the Death Penalty. In 2003, it launched the first International Day Against the Death Penalty, now held every year on October 10.
In Iran, many people are executed on drug-related offences, which Amnesty International in June called a “deadly war on the poor” that targets disadvantaged and marginalized communities. Executions also frequently follow convictions that are based on confessions condemned by rights groups as often obtained under duress.
The death penalty has also been used to suppress minority groups, like Kurds and Baluchis, who were active in the Jin Jiyan Azadi protests in 2022.
In November, the United Nations human rights office called on Tehran to halt use of the death penalty, especially for children.
