Iran executed at least 576 people last year, a significant increase from 314 in 2021, according to Amnesty who attributed the spike to the growing number of death sentences carried out against suspects of murder and drug-related charges.
“Recorded executions [in Iran] for murder had risen sharply by 75% from 159 in 2021 to 279 in 2022; and rose significantly for drug-related offences by 93% from 132 in 2021 to 255 in 2022,” read the report from human rights monitor on Tuesday.
The death sentence was carried out against at least 12 women in the Islamic republic, and at least five suspects who were charged for crimes which occurred when they were below the age of 18. At least two were executed for their involvement in September’s nationwide protests. There was also two recorded cases of public executions in the country.
Iran accounted for 70 percent of the executions carried out in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022, according to Amnesty.
“The Iranian authorities continued to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression and to disproportionately execute members of ethnic minorities as part of the long-term, entrenched discrimination and repression of these groups.”
The same report also confirmed 11 executions in Iraq during 2022, a noticeable decrease from 17 in the previous year. The number of death sentences issued in the country also dropped significantly, going from 91 in 2021 to 41 in 2022.
The rights watchdog said that Iran and Iraq were both among countries where the death sentence was carried out “after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards,” adding that torture and ill-treatment was used to obtain “confessions” in Iran.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, called on the states with the highest rates of execution -which included Iran- to “catch up with the times, protect human rights, and execute justice rather than people.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk last week said that Iran had executed at least 209 people since the start of 2023, with an average rate of over 10 people each week.
Most of those who are executed in Iran are charged based on confessions, but these confession videos are common in the country and are frequently condemned by rights groups who say they are often obtained under duress.
Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed. Amnesty International in March reported that at least 20 death sentences have been handed down since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani assumed office in October.
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