Human rights activists on Thursday said the Iranian government  executed at least 975 people in 2024 in a “horrifying escalation in the use of the death penalty.”

The figure is a 17 per cent increase from the 834 recorded in 2023, according to an annual report by the Oslo-based human rights organisation Iran Human Rights and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty.

It is also the highest number of executions recorded since IHRNGO’s first annual report in 2008 and significantly higher than the average in that span.
Javaid Rehman, a former United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said, “The death penalty is weaponised and instrumentalised against vulnerable and weak people, typically from marginalised communities.”

The majority of the executions in 2024, 503 or 52 per cent, were for drug-related offences, according to the organisations.

Murder charges accounted for 43 per cent of the cases of the death penalty in the country.

Those executed for the controversial charges of “waging war against God,” “corruption on Earth” and “armed rebellion,” according to Islamic legal opinion, accounted for 3 per cent, while 2 per cent of the executions were for rape and sexual assault.

According to the report, there was a “sharp rise” in the number of recorded executions after the presidential election and the appointment of Masoud Pezeshkian as Iranian president in the second half of 2024.

“While the world’s attention was focused on escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, the Islamic Republic exploited the lack of international scrutiny to terrorise its own people,” IHRNGO director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam said. “They are carrying out 5 to 6 executions every single day.”

(dpa/NAN)