Executions in Iran surged to 582 last year, rights groups say

Iran executed 582 people last year in an attempt to spread fear amid months of anti-regime protests, rights groups have said.

It was the highest number since 2015, said Iran Human Rights, based in Norway, and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty.

This surge came as Iran was rocked by protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in morality police custody in September. She had been detained in Tehran three days earlier for wearing her hijab “improperly”.

More than 500 people were killed in subsequent clashes with the security forces.

Iran regularly executes people convicted of drug-related charges and moharebeh, or “enmity against God”, and executes juvenile offenders.

Tehran has sentenced at least a dozen people to death this year, according to Amnesty International, which warned of a “chilling execution spree” last month.

It said authorities used the death penalty to repress ethnic minorities and executed at least one Arab, 14 Kurds and 13 Balochis after “grossly unfair trials”.

At least 94 people were killed in January and February this year, according to Amnesty and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre.

“It is harrowing that executions routinely occur amid the systematic use of torture-tainted ‘confessions’ to convict defendants,” said Amnesty’s Diana Eltahawy.

Two women are among the 151 people executed this year, says Iran Human Rights.

Four people have been executed over the recent protests, described by the UN as “state-sanctioned killing”.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, was the first to be executed in December, a week after four people were put to death for allegedly co-operating with Israeli intelligence.

Dozens of others are on death row for joining the protests, which Tehran has blamed on foreign powers, particularly the US and Israel.

All were found guilty of moharebeh after swift trials.

Western powers imposed new sanctions over the executions, aimed at members of Iran’s judiciary and senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials.

Iranian authorities said the men had killed members of the security forces, but rights groups and activists said the trials were “sham hearings”.