A “terrible” figure.

Iran executed at least 834 people in 2023, an "alarming" increase of 43% compared to 2022, according to the annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Ensemble Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) .

“This is the second time in twenty years that the number of executions has exceeded the threshold of 800 per year,” argue these organizations, which denounce a figure never reached since 2015.

That year, the Iranian authorities executed 972 people, recall the NGOs IHRNGO, based in Norway, and ECPM, based in Paris.

“The number of executions literally exploded in 2023,” underlines the document.

Executions in Iran – one of the countries that most use the death penalty alongside China and Saudi Arabia – are carried out by hanging.

Furthermore, at least 22 women were executed in 2023, the highest number in the last ten years, report these NGOs.

In Iran, adultery is punishable by death for a woman.

Read alsoThe death penalty, a formidable weapon to “subdue the opposition” in Saudi Arabia

“Tool of political repression”

In the 100-page report, the two NGOs accuse Iran of using the death penalty as a "tool of political repression" after the vast protest movement in the country.

This movement was sparked by the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, three days after being arrested by the moral police for an ill-fitting veil.

Her family and human rights activists maintain she was beaten to death, a claim Iranian officials deny.

The demonstrations, which had shaken the regime of the Islamic Republic for several weeks, have now calmed down in the face of repression which led to the death of hundreds of people according to rights defense associations, and thousands of arrests according to the UN.

“Instilling fear in society is the only way for the regime to cling to power, and the death penalty is its most important instrument,” denounces Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO, in a press release.

The report does not include in its statistics "at least 551 people killed during demonstrations or other extrajudicial executions inside and outside prisons", notes the press release.

According to these NGOs, at least eight demonstrators are among those executed in 2023, six of whom were arrested in the context of the demonstrations and sentenced.

Baluchis over-represented among those executed

According to the document, at least 471 people (56% of total executions) were executed for drug-related cases – more than 18 times the figure recorded in 2020 – and at least 282 people (34% of total executions) ) were executed for murder.

Iran, which has one of the highest rates of opioid users in the world, is a main route for drugs from neighboring Afghanistan to Europe and the Middle East.

Read alsoThe Baluchis, at the forefront of demonstrations in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini

“The spectacular escalation in the number of drug-related executions in 2023 is particularly worrying,” say the NGOs.

“Those executed for drug offenses belong to the most marginalized communities in society, and ethnic minorities, particularly the Baloch, are largely over-represented among those executed,” the document denounces.

Amnesty International, which is also investigating the subject, noted in a report published in early March 2023 the case of several Baluchis sentenced to death in connection with anti-regime demonstrations, “following manifestly unfair trials”.

For some of them, the NGO had collected evidence of torture, including sexual violence, to force them to make “confessions”.

“They stuck needles in Ebrahim Narouie’s genitals and beat Mansour Dahmardeh so violently that they broke his teeth and nose,” lamented the NGO regarding two executed prisoners.

Torture to extract confessions

"The Iranian regime, since its origin, has used the death penalty as a tool for massive repression of political dissent. Today, we see that the people who have been executed are ethnic and confessional minorities who have been oppressed by the regime, or by demonstrators who were able to take part in the popular uprising", notes lawyer Chirinne Ardakani, president of the Iran Justice collective.

As proof, she details, throughout the legal procedure, the rights of the defendants are regularly violated.

“Defendants do not have access to their lawyer most of the time. Torture is used, in particular 'white torture', which aims to humiliate political prisoners, isolate them and deprive them of any contact with the outside world. It allows them to extract confessions on the basis of which they will then be sentenced to death."

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According to the lawyer – whose collective collects evidence of the Iranian regime's abuses – sometimes the family was not even notified before the execution and the condemned were not able to say goodbye to their loved ones.

International silence

In the press release published Tuesday, Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, director of ECPM, criticizes the fact that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has, according to him, "remained silent".

“The abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offenses must be a precondition for any future cooperation between UNODC and Iran in the fight against drug trafficking,” he urges.

For his part, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said he was very concerned about the "current lack of strong reaction at the international level" to these executions, in the context of the international community's focus on the war between Israel and Hamas.

This lack of reaction "sends the wrong signal to the Iranian authorities", he deplores, believing that "increasing the political cost of executions through international pressure can slow down the killing machine of the Iranian regime".

Iran Human Rights and ECPM urge the international community “to place the death penalty at the top of the agenda in any dialogue with representatives of the Islamic Republic.”

With AFP

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