Iran executed at least 834 people in 2023, a record number. For the second time in twenty years, the Iranian authorities exceeded the record threshold of 800 executions.
Executions in Iran – one of the countries that most use the death penalty alongside China and Saudi Arabia – are carried out by hanging. In Iran, adultery is punishable by death for a woman; at least 22 women were executed in the last ten years. “Instilling fear in society is the only way for the regime to cling to power,” says IHRNGO director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.