Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam

Iran 

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), October saw the high­est month­ly exe­cu­tion total in Iran since 2007, when the orga­ni­za­tion began doc­u­ment­ing exe­cu­tions. There were at least 166 exe­cu­tions last month, bring­ing the year­ly total to 651 exe­cu­tions over the past 10 months. Of the October exe­cu­tions iden­ti­fied by IHRNGO, only 12%, or 20 exe­cu­tions, were report­ed by offi­cial sources. Eleven Baluch and nine Kurdish peo­ple were among those exe­cut­ed. The increase in num­ber of Afghan nation­als exe­cut­ed also con­tin­ues: there were 13 Afghan nation­als exe­cut­ed in October, bring­ing the 10-month total to 49 — an increase from 2023 when a total of 25 Afghan nation­als were executed. 

Drug-relat­ed crimes, which do not meet the inter­na­tion­al legal thresh­old of a ​“most seri­ous crime,” were the rea­sons that 64 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed. The ongo­ing ​“No Death Penalty Tuesday” week­ly hunger strike move­ment among Iranian pris­on­ers drew exter­nal sup­port in its 39^th week from the fam­i­lies of pris­on­ers who were sen­tenced to death for drug-relat­ed crimes. On October 22, 2024, their fam­i­lies staged a peace­ful protest out­side of the par­lia­ment in Tehran, chant­i­ng ​“Don’t Execute.” Based on video footage, IHRNGO esti­mates that around 100 peo­ple were involved.. ​“Civil protests against the death penal­ty in a coun­try where 5 to 6 peo­ple are exe­cut­ed every day is unprece­dent­ed and should be wide­ly sup­port­ed,” said IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. ​“Despite the pos­si­bil­i­ty of vio­lent repres­sion by the forces of the Islamic Republic, peo­ple have come to the streets to say no to the death penal­ty. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty should hear the voice of the Iranian peo­ple and break its silence regard­ing the wave of exe­cu­tions in Iran.” 

Iran’s judi­cia­ry news agency announced on October 28, 2024 that dual Iranian-German nation­al Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sen­tenced to death for ​“cor­rup­tion of Earth,” had been ​“pun­ished for his actions.” But judi­cia­ry spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters on November 5 that ​“Jamshid Sharmahd was sen­tenced to death, his exe­cu­tion was immi­nent, but he died before it could be car­ried out.” According to The Guardian, the Iranian gov­ern­ment has implied that Mr. Sharmahd died from a stroke. ​“This incon­sis­ten­cy rais­es seri­ous ques­tions about the cir­cum­stances of the death and the trans­paren­cy of the Iranian sys­tem,” Jason Poblete, a lawyer rep­re­sent­ing the Sharmahd fam­i­ly, told The Associated Press. ​“The fam­i­ly has been urg­ing the German and U.S. author­i­ties to inves­ti­gate this mat­ter to ascer­tain the truth, ensure account­abil­i­ty thor­ough­ly and reunite Jimmy with his fam­i­ly in California.” Following reports of Mr. Sharmahd’s death, Germany closed all three Iranian con­sulates in the country. 

Pakistan 

On October 10, 2024, Justice Project Pakistan released its annu­al report, ​“Death Penalty in Pakistan: Data Mapping Capital Punishment.” As of September 30, 2024, there are 6,161 pris­on­ers on death row in Pakistan, large­ly con­cen­trat­ed in the Punjab (2,505) and Khyber Pakthunkwa (2,311) provinces. The report not­ed that ​“despite the pas­sage of the Control of Narcotics Substances (Amendment) Act 2023, which elim­i­nat­ed the death penal­ty for nar­cotics offens­es, chal­lenges remain.” In January and May, indi­vid­u­als were sen­tenced to death on nar­cotics charges; three cas­es are cur­rent­ly pend­ing appeal before the High Court. Of the 93 indi­vid­u­als who remain on death row for drug-relat­ed charges, 84 of them are in the Baluchistan province. ​“The high con­cen­tra­tion of con­demned pris­on­ers in Balochistan calls for a clos­er exam­i­na­tion of the region’s judi­cial and sen­tenc­ing prac­tices, par­tic­u­lar­ly in light of the ongo­ing reforms aimed at reduc­ing the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment,” said the report. 

Saudi Arabia 

Seven orga­ni­za­tions — ALQST for Human Rights; Amnesty International; ECPM — Together against the death penal­ty; The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR); Human Rights Watch; MENA Rights Group; and Reprieve — released a joint state­ment on October 14, 2024, stat­ing they were ​“hor­ri­fied by the soar­ing num­ber of exe­cu­tions,” which is now ​“more than the num­ber of exe­cu­tions for any whole year in the past three decades.” The state­ment explains: ​“This shows the Saudi author­i­ties’ fla­grant dis­re­gard for the right to life and con­tra­dicts their own pledges [made in 2018 and 2022] to lim­it use of the death penal­ty.” The death penal­ty con­tin­ues to be used for non-lethal crimes, includ­ing drug-relat­ed offens­es and non-lethal ter­ror­ism-relat­ed offens­es (e.g. protests), as well as on juve­nile offend­ers, nine of whom are at risk of immi­nent exe­cu­tion. ​“While con­tin­u­ing to car­ry out these egre­gious human rights abus­es, the Saudi author­i­ties are at the same time striv­ing to rebrand their image on the inter­na­tion­al stage. … As such, it is vital that the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty is not daz­zled by such dis­trac­tions, but focus­es on the real­i­ty on the ground, name­ly the spike in exe­cu­tions and sys­tem­at­ic crack­down on free speech,” said the statement. 

According to an ESOHR report, there have been at least 234 exe­cu­tions as of October 24, 2024. ESOHR high­lights that of these exe­cu­tions, 20 were sen­tenced to death on trea­son charges by the Specialized Criminal Court, rep­re­sent­ing an increase from 2023 when two peo­ple were exe­cut­ed for trea­son. ​“Treason is one of the most ambigu­ous polit­i­cal charges, lack­ing trans­paren­cy and human rights over­sight, which makes it a poten­tial tool for exces­sive repres­sion and killings,” said ESOHR. ​“The fig­ures point to a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the use of this charge, one that has not been sub­ject to human rights mon­i­tor­ing or media cov­er­age. Given the lack of trust in Saudi courts and the absence of trans­paren­cy, the rapid expan­sion of this charge sug­gests its use as a polit­i­cal tool for exces­sive repres­sion and exe­cu­tions with­out regard for com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al agree­ments and laws.” 

Vietnam 

Truong My Lan, who was sen­tenced to death in the country’s largest fraud case, has filed an appeal. She was first sen­tenced to death and ordered to repay near­ly $27 bil­lion in April 2024 after being con­vict­ed of mul­ti­ple counts of bribery, vio­lat­ing bank­ing reg­u­la­tions, and embez­zle­ment. According to VNExpress, in a sec­ond tri­al that end­ed October 17, she was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison for fraud­u­lent prop­er­ty appro­pri­a­tion, 12 years for laun­der­ing more than $18 bil­lion, and eight years for ille­gal­ly trans­fer­ring $1.5 bil­lion out of the coun­try and receiv­ing $3 bil­lion from abroad.