Bericht von Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) und Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), 5.3.2024 (engl. Original)
The 16 th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), reveals that the Iranian authorities intensified their use of the death penalty to instil societal fear in the year following the outbreak of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests. The report documents a staggering total of 834 executions in 2023, representing a 43% increase compared to the previous year. This is the second highest number of documented annual executions in more than 20 years in Iran.
Eight protesters were executed in 2023, six of whom were arrested in relation to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests and sentenced to death in grossly unfair trials without due process. While executions of the protesters led to strong international reactions in the beginning of the year, the executions in the second half of the year failed to elicit the same level of condemnation and backlash. The correlation between lack of international attention and the use of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic was especially evident after the onset of the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023. The average number of daily executions rose from 2 before the onset of the war in Gaza to an average of 3-4 executions per day during the war.
In 2023, the Islamic Republic authorities not only intensified the use of the death penalty, but also expanded the scope of charges for which the death penalty was implemented. For the first time in 10 years, the Islamic Republic executed two men for blasphemy and one man for adultery charges. In addition, two dual-nationals were hanged. One of them, the Swedish citizen Habib Asyoud, had been kidnapped by regime agents in Turkey and forcibly transferred to Iran before his sham trial and execution.
With the launch of the 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, Iran Human Rights and ECPM call on the members of the Human Rights Council to renew the mandates of the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFMI) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and to formulate strong recommendations in the framework of the UPR. The Organisations also call on the international community – in particular the UNODC, States with diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic and all other Member States, to put the death penalty on the top of the agenda in any dialogue with Islamic Republic representatives, and to play a more active role in supporting the improvement of the human rights situation by promoting the abolition of the death penalty in Iran.
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