Iran Continues Aggressive Use of Death Penalty Despite International Condemnation

Iran con­tin­ues to use the death penal­ty in vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al law, includ­ing death sen­tences for crimes fail­ing to meet the ​“most seri­ous” crime thresh­old, the use of tor­ture, and per­form­ing pub­lic exe­cu­tions. According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 277 exe­cu­tions thus far in 2023, with at least 106 exe­cu­tions in the first 20 days of May, con­sti­tut­ing the ​“blood­i­est month” in more than five years.

“What we’re wit­ness­ing in Iran are not exe­cu­tions, but extra­ju­di­cial mass-killings to cre­ate soci­etal fear to main­tain pow­er. In order to stop the Islamic Republic’s killing machine, firm and con­crete action is need­ed by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and not just expres­sions of regret and con­dem­na­tions,” stat­ed IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

Death sen­tences for drug-relat­ed crimes, efsad-fil-arz (cor­rup­tion on earth), moharabeh (wag­ing war against god), and oth­er non-lethal offens­es vio­late inter­na­tion­al human rights law that lim­its the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to the ​“most seri­ous crimes.” Amidst a high num­ber of exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed charges in May 2023 – in line with trends from the pre­vi­ous year in which 44% of exe­cu­tions were for drug-relat­ed charges – three pro­tes­tors were exe­cut­ed on May 19, spark­ing wide­spread inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion. Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi, and Saeed Yaghoubi (pic­tured) were arrest­ed dur­ing nation­wide protests sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Jina Amini. All three were con­vict­ed of moharabeh alleged­ly based on false con­fes­sions obtained through tor­ture. According to a fam­i­ly mem­ber, two days after Mr. Kazemi’s exe­cu­tion, Iranian agents vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly, assault­ed his broth­ers and par­ents, and arrest­ed three of his siblings. 

Members of both gov­ern­ment and civ­il soci­ety con­demned these exe­cu­tions. The U.S. envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, tweet­ed that such actions were ​“an affront to the human rights and basic dig­ni­ty of all Iranians.” Along with con­dem­na­tion, the European Union called on Iran to abol­ish its death penalty.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, empha­sized the unfair tri­al pro­ceed­ings, stat­ing ​“The shock­ing speed at which these men were ush­ered to their deaths illus­trates the Iranian author­i­ties’ fla­grant dis­re­gard for the rights to life and a fair tri­al.” The appar­ent lack of due process char­ac­ter­ized in these three cas­es is large­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of many cas­es in the coun­try. Data from the Iran Prison Atlas found that 100% of pro­test­ers arrest­ed between September 16 and December 31, 2022 were denied access to a lawyer.

The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission estab­lished to inves­ti­gate human rights vio­la­tions by the Iranian gov­ern­ment released a state­ment that said they were ​“deeply alarmed at the con­tin­u­ing exe­cu­tions of pro­test­ers pend­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of alleged human rights vio­la­tions,” and regard­ed the exe­cu­tions of the three pro­tes­tors as ​“pro­found­ly con­cern­ing,” espe­cial­ly due to ​“alle­ga­tions of their hav­ing been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced through con­fes­sions obtained under tor­ture.” Meanwhile, UN experts ​“urge[d] the Iranian Government to stop this hor­rif­ic wave of exe­cu­tions.” Earlier this month, on May 9, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk regard­ed the con­ser­v­a­tive aver­age of 10 exe­cu­tions in Iran a week as ​“an abom­inable record,” and urged a mora­to­ri­um with view towards abo­li­tion; in a let­ter dat­ed May 10, UNHRC President Vaclav Balek announced the appoint­ment of Ali Bahreini, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations to chair the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Social Forum in November 2023.

Trends in the pre­vi­ous year demon­strat­ed a spike in exe­cu­tions fol­low­ing the protests of teach­ers in May 2022 and fol­low­ing protests sparked by Ms. Amini’s death. 

Commenting on the Iran Human Rights 2022 report, Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: ​“The inter­na­tion­al reac­tions to the death sen­tences against pro­test­ers have made it dif­fi­cult for the Islamic Republic to pro­ceed with their exe­cu­tions. To com­pen­sate, and in order to spread fear among peo­ple, the author­i­ties have inten­si­fied the exe­cu­tion for non-polit­i­cal charges. These are the low-cost vic­tims of the Islamic Republic’s exe­cu­tion machine. In order to stop this machine, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and civ­il soci­ety inside and out­side Iran must show the same reac­tion to each and every execution.”

IHRNGO warns that two Afghan nation­als are at risk of pub­lic exe­cu­tions in vio­la­tion of Articles 6 and 7 of the ICCPR. Iran con­duct­ed two pub­lic exe­cu­tions last year, along with the exe­cu­tion of at least three juve­niles (ages 17 and 16 at the time of the crime), though more are sus­pect­ed. According to IHRNGO, the juve­niles were kept in prison until they reached the age of 18 and then were executed.