Executions in Iran saw an alarming increase in 2021
Over the past year executions have increased by more than 25% in Iran, according to NGOs Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) based in Norway and France respectively. Death sentences doubled especially after the election of conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who was sworn in as president on 5 August. Analysts and media have already warned of further oppression should Raisi win the presidential election. Various sources claim that the current president was involved in the massacre of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
In total, at least 333 people were sentenced to death in 2021, compared to 267 the previous year. However, the report notes that only 16.5% of the killings were announced by the authorities. IHR and ECPM say the number of executions rose "alarmingly" after Raisi's election in June, the month in which the most killings were recorded - 51 - and doubled in the second half of 2021 compared to the first part of the year.
One of the main crimes among those executed was drug trafficking. "The number of executions linked to drug trafficking jumped dramatically with a total of 126 executed last year, a hundred more than the previous year, when 25 were recorded," the NGOs explain.
The report presented by the two organisations also highlights that in 2021 the number of executions of women increased. Seventeen women were killed by the regime last year, eight more than in 2020. IHR and ECPM highlight the names of Zahra Esmaili and Maryam Karimi, sentenced to death for murdering their abusive husbands. Among those executed are also minors, such as Arman Abdolali, accused of killing his girlfriend.
On the other hand, NGOs denounce the "disproportionate" number of executions of ethnic minorities, in particular the Baloch. 21% of those executed in 2021 were from this community, despite the fact that Baloch represent only 2-6% of the total population.
"The Islamic Republic's terrible human rights and death penalty records are not included in the JCPOA (international agreement on Iran's nuclear programme) negotiations," laments Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR. Amiry-Moghaddam warned that there will be no sustainable agreement "unless the human rights situation in general and the death penalty in particular are central parts of the negotiations".
The director of the Norway-based NGO also stresses that "the Iranian authorities are under less scrutiny" while the Vienna negotiations are taking place. "Any negotiations between the West and Iran must include the issue of the death penalty among their priorities," agrees Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, ECPM's director general.
However, the NGO report also reveals that a large part of the Iranian population is against this "inhumane practice". "Public support for the death penalty has decreased significantly," the organisations say. Amiry-Moghaddam also believes that the death penalty "is not popular among Iranians". "The authorities use it to spread fear and make ordinary citizens complicit in their brutality and violence".
The regime in Tehran remains on the same path in 2022. According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, the country's authorities carried out 39 executions last March. Nineteen of those convicted were charged with murder, while the other 20 were hanged for drug-related offences.
In addition to murder, NGOs denounce the "systematic" use of physical and psychological torture to "extract confessions that will become the basis for death sentences". Last year several cases of suspicious deaths in prisons came to light, probably caused by torture or refusal of appropriate medical care.
