Iran hanged 251 people at a ‘horrifying pace’ in first half of 2022
- Amnesty International said the Islamic republic ‘executed at least one person a day on average during the first six months of the year’
- Last week, Iran also carried out its first public execution in two years
The Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran and London-based Amnesty International said in a joint statement that 251 hangings have been confirmed this year up until the end of June, although the real number may be even higher.
“If executions continue at this horrifying pace, they will soon surpass the total of 314 executions recorded for the whole of 2021,” the groups said, denouncing an “execution spree”.
They said that 146 of people executed in 2022 had been convicted of murder, “amid well-documented patterns of executions being systematically carried out following grossly unfair trials.”
But at least 86 other people were executed for drug-related offences for which executions had dropped sharply in recent years until now, following changes to domestic legislation.
“During the first six months of 2022, the Iranian authorities executed at least one person a day on average. The state machinery is carrying out killings on a mass scale across the country in an abhorrent assault on the right to life,” said Diana Eltahawy, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.