Iran executed at least 11 in the past month: Reports

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 11 Kurds were executed and two died under torture, while over 50 others were detained over the past month in Iran, a human rights monitor said on Monday in its monthly report. 

Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that in the past month, Iranian security forces detained at least 54 Kurdish activists and citizens in the western provinces of Iran. Two detainees were sent to prison while the fate of the rest, including two children remains unknown.

The human rights network says it has recorded at least 11 Kurdish prisoners were executed on charges related to drugs or murder. 

The network publishes its monthly reports at the end of every month according to the Kurdish calendar. This month’s reports detail the cases of June and July.

Iran has a notorious reputation for executions in the world. A report by Amnesty International in May said that Tehran accounted for 70 percent of the executions carried out in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022.

According to the reports. Iran carried out 576 executions in 2022, an 83 percent increase compared to the year prior, which saw 314 people executed, making it the country with the second-highest rate of known executions during that year.

In June, Amnesty described the increase in Iran's drug-related executions as a “war on the poor”, claiming that it has mainly targeted the country's marginalized and economically disadvantaged communities.

Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) estimated at least 307 people were executed during the first five months of 2023.