By Pishtaz and AFP | 2023-11-06

More than 600 people have been executed in Iran in the first ten months of this year, already the highest figure in eight years, a rights group has said.

Nine executions took place in a single day in a prison outside Tehran last week, and two individuals face execution after being convicted of adultery, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said on Friday (November 3).

IHR and other rights groups have accused Iran of using capital punishment to frighten society in the wake of woman-led protests that swept the country for several months last year, known as the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement.

"The international community must react to more than 600 executions in 10 months -- that's two state murders a day," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

"Silence is indirect consent to these crimes," he added, noting that Iran is the current chair of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Social Forum as of last week.

IHR's tally of 604 executions was already higher than the figure of 582 recorded in 2022, and the most since 2015, when it registered 972 executions.

Excessive use of death penalty

Activists have expressed dismay over the surging numbers of drug-related executions, which have risen in recent years.

Before that recent spike, the number of such executions had been declining because of amendments to the Iranian criminal code.

The latest executions, on Wednesday, involved nine men who were hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj (near Tehran), mostly on murder charges, IHR said.

Meanwhile, it said, a man and a woman, named as Leila Kholghi-Sakachayi and Abolfazl Barat-Vakili, were sentenced to death by a Tehran court in August on adultery charges.

Closed circuit camera recordings provided by the woman's husband showed them having sex, which were used as evidence against them in court.

"The international community shouldn't tolerate executions being carried out for consensual sex... in the 21st century by a government that has a seat at the United Nations," said Amiry-Moghaddam.

Death sentences for adultery have been rare in Iran. In 2017, an Iranian woman was sentenced to death for adultery, but she has not been executed, according to reports.

In Iran, crimes punishable by death include what the judiciary -- which observes Islamic law -- defines as adultery, sodomy, murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Tehran is under international pressure for its extensive use of the death penalty. Last Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Iran was conducting executions at "an alarming rate."

At least 419 defendants received capital punishment in the first seven months of 2023, an increase of 30% from the same period last year, he said.

Guterres noted that 239 individuals — over half of those executed in the seven-month period ending on July 31— were reportedly put to death for drug-related offenses, a 98% increase from the same period last year.

Punishing protesters

In a report to the UN General Assembly on the human rights situation in Iran, Guterres said Iran had hanged seven men in relation to or for participating in the 2022 nationwide protests. Those protests flared up after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of the regime's "morality police."

In all seven cases, information received by the UN human rights office "consistently indicated that the judicial proceedings did not fulfill the requirements for due process and a fair trial under international human rights law," Guterres said.

"Access to adequate and timely legal representation was frequently denied, with reports of coerced confessions, which may have been obtained as a result of torture," he added.

He said he was deeply concerned "at the lack of transparent and independent investigations into reported human rights violations, in particular in the context of the latest nationwide protests."

The continued targeting of lawyers is also impeding accountability for past and ongoing violations, he added.

Citing information received by the UN human rights office, Guterres said some 20,000 individuals were arrested in Iran for participating in anti-establishment protests between September 17, 2022, and February 8, 2023.

"It is particularly concerning that most of the individuals arrested may have been children, given that the reported average age of those arrested was estimated to be 15 years, according to the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," he said.

The government said "at least" 22,000 Iranians who were arrested in the protests were pardoned, but the UN has deemed it difficult to verify the arrest and release numbers.

Guterres expressed concern that a number of individuals who were pardoned received summonses on new charges or were arrested again later, including woman activists, journalists and members of minority groups.

He cited reported instances of disproportionate and excessive use of force against protesters, as well as beatings, sexual violence and psychological abuse in detention.

Iranian officials continue to use national security "to justify restrictions on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, online and offline," said Guterres.