Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) and Paris-based Together against the death penalty (ECPM) on Tuesday published their joint annual report on the death penalty in the Islamic republic, reflecting a dramatic 43% increase in the number of executions compared to the previous year.
Of the 834 executions carried out by Iranian authorities last year, only 125 were reported by official sources, accounting for only 15 percent of the total number. Suspects of drug-related charges made up over 55 percent of all the executions, with at least 471 suspects executed on said grounds.
Tehran has heavily cracked down on drug trade in recent years, carrying out an alarming number of executions. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in April 2023 described his country as being “at the forefront of the fight against drugs.”
“The abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offences must be a precondition for any future cooperation between the UNODC [United Nations’ Office for Drugs and Crimes] and Iran in the fight against drug trafficking,” said Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM.
The execution rate for 2023 is Iran’s highest since 2015, when which 972 people were executed, and marks the first time the number has exceeded 800 in 20 years, according to the report.
At least two juvenile offenders and 22 women were executed in Iran in 2023. At least eight protesters, including six who were arrested during the 2022 nationwide protests, were executed last year on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) and sowing “corruption on earth,” the watchdogs reported.
The report called on the international community to actively promote the improvement of the human rights situation in the Islamic republic and work towards abolishing the death penalty in the country in dialogue with Iranian officials.
Many of those who are executed in Iran are convicted based on confessions condemned by rights groups as being often obtained under duress. In November, the United Nations human rights office called on Tehran to halt the application of the death penalty in light of the execution of a 17-year-old for alleged murder.