ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International’s annual report on death sentences, published Tuesday, raised alarms about the sharp increase in executions in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia in 2024, with these three countries accounting for 91 percent of all known executions worldwide.
According to the report, “The global spike in known executions was due to a considerable rise in the numbers recorded in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, where executions increased altogether from 1,041 in 2023 to 1,380 in 2024.”
Amnesty International further cautioned that the executions in the three countries rose to alarming levels in 2024, reaching the highest figures since 2015.
Iran alone accounted for 67 percent of all global executions with an estimated 972 death penalties carried out.
Amnesty said that the number includes 505 drug-related offenses and vaguely defined charges, such as Moharebeh and Fasede Fel Arz, Persian for enmity against God and corruption on earth.
According to Amnesty, such offenses fail to meet the principle of legality under international law and should not warrant the death penalty.
The global rights watchdog therefore labelled the hike in executions in Iran as a “disturbing upward trend,” noting that the death sentences were imposed arbitrarily following unfair trials in Revolutionary Courts that lack independence, rely on coerced confessions and mostly target minorities.
The report also censured Iranian authorities over their continued weaponization of the death penalty against dissidents, including those who participated in the Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) uprising.
In mid-September 2022, a Kurdish woman, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s compulsory hijab law. Her death sparked nationwide protests in Iran - the longest protest movement the country had seen in four decades.
In Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International criticized the authorities for expanding the use of the death penalty in 2024, often imposing capital punishment after unfair trials for crimes that do not meet international standards for the “most serious crimes.”
More than one-third of the 345 executions carried out in Saudi Arabia were against persons charged with drug-related offenses. Foreign nationals also made up 41 percent of those executed.
As for Iraq, Amnesty reported that “the number of people known to have been sentenced to death increased by 45 percent compared to the previous year,” bringing the total to 63.
“In Iraq, all known executions involved people convicted of terrorism related offences, among concerns of violations of the right to a fair trial and allegations of torture or other ill-treatment to extract ‘confessions’,” the rights watchdog said.
