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PARIS (AFP) — Executions in Iran rose by 25 % in 2021, a report by two main NGOs mentioned Thursday, expressing alarm over a surge within the numbers executed for drug offenses and likewise the hanging of at the very least 17 ladies.
The speed of executions in Iran additionally accelerated after the June election of hardline former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi to the presidency, mentioned the report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France’s Collectively In opposition to the Dying Penalty (ECPM).
The report urged world powers negotiating with Iran on reviving the deal on its nuclear program to place use of capital punishment within the Islamic Republic — which executes extra folks yearly then any nation apart from China — on the middle of the talks.
At the very least 333 folks had been executed in 2021, a 25% enhance in comparison with 267 in 2020, mentioned the report, based mostly on official media but additionally sources inside Iran.
In the meantime, at the very least 126 executions had been for drug-related costs, 5 instances greater than 2020’s determine of 25.
This marked a serious reversal of a development of a decline in drug-related executions since Iran in 2017 adopted amendments to its anti-narcotics legislation within the face of worldwide stress.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi exterior Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2022. (Iranian Presidency Workplace through AP)
Over 80% of executions weren’t formally introduced, together with all these for drug-related offenses, it mentioned.
The report “reveals a rise within the variety of executions, an alarming rise within the implementation of demise sentences for drug offences and an ongoing lack of transparency,” the NGOs mentioned.
‘Much less scrutiny’
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam expressed concern that there was “much less scrutiny” on Iran’s rights file as powers targeted on bringing the nuclear negotiations to a optimistic conclusion.
“There will likely be no sustainable (deal)… except the scenario of human rights basically and the demise penalty particularly, are central elements of the negotiations,” he mentioned.
The report mentioned at the very least 17 ladies had been executed in 2021, in comparison with 9 in 2020. Twelve had been sentenced for homicide and 5 on drug-related costs.
Illustrative: A prisoner being held in an Iranian jail. (AP Photograph/Amr Nabil, File)
There was rising concern over the numbers of ladies executed on costs of murdering a husband or relative who activists imagine could have been abusive.
It famous the case of 1 girl, Zahra Esmaili, who shot her husband useless in 2017. It mentioned she was executed in February 2021 and will have had a coronary heart assault earlier than being hanged after watching others endure the identical destiny earlier than her.
In one other case, Maryam Karimi was convicted for the homicide of her husband and was hanged in March 2021, together with her daughter personally finishing up the execution by kicking away the stool as is allowed underneath Iranian legislation.
‘Device of repression’
The report additionally expressed concern that the execution of ethnic minorities additionally continued to rise in 2021, accounting for a disproportionately massive variety of these hanged.
Prisoners from the Baluch minority accounted for 21% of all executions in 2021, though they solely symbolize 2–6% of Iran’s inhabitants, it mentioned.
Most prisoners executed for security-related costs belonged to the ethnic Arab, Baluch and Kurdish minorities, it added.
Illustrative: Evin Jail in Tehran, Iran. (CC BY-SA 2.0 Ehsan Iran/Wikipedia)
“We’re alarmed on the disproportionate variety of ethnic minority executions as evidenced on this report,” mentioned ECPM Director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan.
In a single welcome improvement, the report mentioned that there have been no public executions in Iran in 2021 for the primary time in a decade however expressed concern they may begin once more.
“A society routinely uncovered to such organized violence has accepted the demise penalty as a authorized resolution, and the demise penalty has consequently change into a software of repression within the authorities’s fingers,” the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose movies on the impression of the demise penalty in Iran have gained worldwide prizes, wrote in a preface to the report.
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