Iran executed more than 100 people, including minors and women, within a space of three months in 2022, a report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released Tuesday said.
The report, which was presented at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva by its deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif, said that the numbers were on the rise and the reasons for executions were becoming more arbitrary.
“While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women,” Al-Nashif said.
“At least 105 people were executed, many of whom belonged to minority groups” between January 1 and March 20 of this year.
A total of 310 individuals were executed in 2021, compared with 260 the previous year.
File/Iranian officials prepare the noose for the execution of Balal, who killed fellow Iranian youth Abdolah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007, during his execution ceremony in the northern city of Noor on April 15, 2014. (ARASH KHAMOOSHI/AFP/Getty Images)
Protesters gather at Schuman Square to protest against executions in Iran ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October) in Brussels, Belgium. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
“The death penalty continues to be imposed on the basis of charges not amounting to ‘most serious crimes,’ and in ways incompatible with fair trials standards,” she told the council.
In March alone, 52 people were sentenced to death on drug-related charges.
More than 85 minors are currently on death row, she said.
Crimes that can incur the death penalty in Iran include homosexual relations, armed rebellion and “spreading corruption.”
File/Demonstrators pose behind fake prison bars as Iranian opposition protesters march in Paris during a rally to protest against executions in Iran. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)
Al-Nashif also slammed the Islamic Republic for other human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force during anti-regime protests.
“In April and May 2022, at least 55 individuals — teachers, lawyers, labor rights defenders, artists and academics — were arrested during protests, many of whom are facing national security charges,” she said.