Iran executes more people each year than any other country in the world – with the exception of China, for which no precise data is available. This is the grim observation made byIran Human Rights (IHR) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) in a report published on Thursday 13 April.

In 2022, Iran hanged 582 people, 75 percent more than the previous year, according to the document. The Islamic Republic had not seen such a number of executions since 2015, when 972 people were put to death, according to the IHR.

This increase is explained by a massive and unprecedented protest movement against the government, triggered by the death in September 2022 of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, during her detention by the morality police for a "badly worn" veil. An uprising to which Tehran responded with a ferocious repression of demonstrators.

One hundred protesters on death row

The two NGOs behind the report fear that with more than 150 executions in the first three months of 2023 alone, the total for the current year is likely to be the highest in two decades. These organizations argue that "the death penalty is again being used as a final tool of intimidation and oppression by the Iranian regime in order to maintain the stability of its power."

This is evidenced by the return of public hangings. That of Majidreza Rahnavard, a 23-year-old protester, marked the return to this practice on the streets of Iran after two years without any public execution, the report said. According to state media, the young man was accused of stabbing two members of the security forces and wounding four others.

Four men were hanged in 2022after convictions in protest-related cases, NGOs say, while another 100 protesters are at risk of execution after being sentenced to death or charged with capital offences. Not to mention that "the report does not include in its statistics the 537 people, at least, killed during demonstrations or other extrajudicial executions inside and outside prisons".

>> See also: Still imprisoned, rapper Toomaj Salehi faces death penalty in Iran

Increase in drug-related executions

According to IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, based in Norway, the international mobilization denouncing the executions of Iranian demonstrators has made it possible to contain their numbers. However, he is also alarmed at the sharp increase since the uprising in Iran in the number of killings on drug-related charges.

More than half of those executed since the protests began, and 44% of the 582 executions recorded in 2022, have been executed for drug-related reasons.

Whether for protesting or drug trafficking, "every execution in Iran is political, regardless of the charges," said Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, describing those executed for drug trafficking or murder as the "cheap victims" of Iran's "killing machine". In other words, the Iranian state is continuing executions for other reasons to deter people from protesting, the report warns.

The death penalty: "systematic discrimination" against ethnic minorities

Another striking fact is that 30 per cent of those executed nationwide are members of the Baloch Sunni minority, despite the fact that they constitute only 2 to 6 per cent of Iran's population.

The number of Kurds and Arabs executed is also disproportionate, particularly with regard to drug-related offences. The authors of the report are saying that "the death penalty is part of the systematic discrimination and widespread repression of Iran's ethnic minorities".

>> Read also: The Baluchis, at the forefront of the demonstrations in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini

For its part, Amnesty International had counted, in a report published in early March, at least thirteen Baluchis sentenced to death since January "after manifestly unfair trials". For some of them, the NGO had collected evidence of torture, including sexual violence, to force them to confess.

With AFP

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