ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran executed 144 Kurdish prisoners in 2023, a significant rise from the previous year, a human rights watchdog reported on Saturday.
Executions of Kurds in Iranian prisons saw a staggering rise of 177 percent compared to 2022, when 52 prisoners were put to death, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
“It is crucial to note that these statistics have been recorded with ten days remaining in the current year, suggesting the potential for further increases in the aforementioned figures,” read a statement from Hengaw on X.
Iran executed at least 576 people across the country last year, a significant increase from 314 in 2021, making it the nation with the second-highest rate of known executions during 2022, according to the annual report from Amnesty International released in May.
The surge of executions has not slowed down this year. In July, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that at least 354 people, including six women, were executed in the first six months of 2023 and Iranian authorities reported only 43 of the recorded executions, which make up just 12 percent of the total.
Many people are executed on drug-related offences, which Amnesty International in June called a “deadly war on the poor,” targeting disadvantaged and marginalized communities.
The death penalty has also been used to suppress minority groups, like Kurds and Baluchis, who were active in last year’s Jin Jiyan Azadi protests.
Last month, the United Nations human rights office called on Tehran to halt use of the death penalty, especially on children.
“We remind Iranian authorities of their obligation, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to prohibit death sentences and their implementation for crimes committed by individuals below the age of 18,” said UN human rights office spokesperson Liz Throssell.
Many of those who are executed in Iran are convicted based on confessions condemned by rights groups as often obtained under duress.
The human rights office urged the Iranian government to establish a moratorium on executions and called on Tehran to stop using “criminal procedures” to punish political activists.
