ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Thursday said Iran was using the death penalty to repress persecuted minorities, carrying out dozens of executions in the first two months of the year.
Iran executed at least 94 people in January and February, nearly a third of them were minorities, according to research from Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian human rights monitor.
“The Iranian authorities are carrying out executions on a frightening scale. Their actions amount to an assault on the right to life and a shameless attempt not only to further oppress ethnic minorities but to spread fear that dissent will be met with brute force, either in the streets or in the gallows,” said Roya Boroumand, executive director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.
Iran ranks among one of the world’s top executioners, but Amnesty said the statistics from this year are notably higher than last year. At least 14 Kurds, 13 Baluchis, and one Ahwazi Arab have been executed so far this year and dozens more have been given death sentences.
Related: Iran protester recalls forced confessions under savage beating in prison
Kurdish human rights monitor Hengaw said these numbers are an undercount, reporting that 33 Kurds have been executed this year. The organization documented 102 executions in January and February, with a third of them being Kurds.
The executions regularly followed unfair trials and the use of torture or ill-treatment to coerce confessions. Some of the convictions were on charges related to widespread protests sparked by the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, in custody in September.
Questioned about Iran’s human rights record in the wake of the crackdown on protests during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this week, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian defended his government’s actions. "In our religious and Islamic texts, human rights is one of the most fundamental issues and we have always been advised to observe them. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran also emphasizes them. We observe human rights very well,” he said.
Iran executed at least 94 people in January and February, nearly a third of them were minorities, according to research from Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian human rights monitor.
“The Iranian authorities are carrying out executions on a frightening scale. Their actions amount to an assault on the right to life and a shameless attempt not only to further oppress ethnic minorities but to spread fear that dissent will be met with brute force, either in the streets or in the gallows,” said Roya Boroumand, executive director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.
Iran ranks among one of the world’s top executioners, but Amnesty said the statistics from this year are notably higher than last year. At least 14 Kurds, 13 Baluchis, and one Ahwazi Arab have been executed so far this year and dozens more have been given death sentences.
Related: Iran protester recalls forced confessions under savage beating in prison
Kurdish human rights monitor Hengaw said these numbers are an undercount, reporting that 33 Kurds have been executed this year. The organization documented 102 executions in January and February, with a third of them being Kurds.
The executions regularly followed unfair trials and the use of torture or ill-treatment to coerce confessions. Some of the convictions were on charges related to widespread protests sparked by the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, in custody in September.
Questioned about Iran’s human rights record in the wake of the crackdown on protests during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this week, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian defended his government’s actions. "In our religious and Islamic texts, human rights is one of the most fundamental issues and we have always been advised to observe them. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran also emphasizes them. We observe human rights very well,” he said.
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