Iran is reportedly responsible for more than half of all recorded executions in the world and ranks second after China.
According to a report released on Thursday by Amnesty International, “More than half (51%) of all recorded executions in 2017 were carried out in Iran.” Iran executed at least 507 people last year.
At least five of the individuals executed were juveniles at the time they committed the crimes they were sentenced to death for.
The report notes:
501 were men and six were women. At least five juvenile offenders were executed and 31 executions were carried out publicly. The executions were carried out for murder (240); drug trafficking (205); murder and rape 4; robbery 11; “spreading corruption on earth” 2; rape (male on female rape) 16; kidnapping and murder 3;moharebeh (politically motivated) (2); and 19 were for offenses that could not be confirmed.
Amnesty International reportedly observed that there has been “a slight decrease (5%) in execution figures” in Iran since 2016.
Amnesty also noted that Iran ranks second in the world after China in terms of executions and has “carried out 84% of the global total number of executions with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.”
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, head of the Iran Human Rights Organization in Norway, told Radio Farda that “some 70 to 80% of executions in Iran are not reported.”
Iran also has a tendency to label the deaths of political prisoners are suicide.Upon receiving their lifeless bodies, relatives of the deceased have reported seeing signs and markings of beatings. This was particularly common during the recent uprisings in Iran, which began on December 28 and spread throughout various parts of the country.
Some reports out of Iran suggested that the Iranian regime also forced prisoners to take pills that made them sick.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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