Demonstrators chant slogans against the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police, in downtown Tehran, Iran. file | Photo Credit: AP
Iranian authorities plan to execute 55 people in 2023, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said on Friday – the increased use of the death penalty aims to instill fear as protests rock the country.
Meanwhile, rights group Amnesty International said three young people sentenced to death over the protests – the youngest aged 18 – had been subjected to “horrific torture” in custody.
The IHR said it had confirmed at least 55 executions in the first 26 days of this year.
The IHR said four people were executed on charges related to the protests, while the majority of those hanged – 37 convicts – were executed for drug-related offences.
The group said that at least 107 people are at risk of being executed because of the demonstrations, even after being convicted of or convicted of capital crimes.
With the increase in the use of the death penalty by Iran in recent years, the IHR argued that “every execution by the Islamic Republic is political” with the main objective being to “instill social fear and terror”.
IHR director Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam said, “To stop the government’s execution machine, no execution should be tolerated, whether political or non-political.”
He added that the lack of response from the international community risks compounding “the political cost of executing protesters”.
‘State Sanctioned Murder’
Activists have accused Iran of using the death penalty as a tool of intimidation to quell protests that began in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who defied the country’s dress code for women. Was arrested for allegedly infringing.
UN rights chief Volker Turk has said that Iran’s “weaponisation of criminal procedures” to punish protesters “is tantamount to state-sanctioned murder”.
On Friday, Amnesty said three men sentenced to death in December had been subjected to torture “including whippings, electric shocks, hanging upside down and threats of death at gunpoint”.
He was convicted of arson and vandalism during protests in Mazandaran province in the north of Iran in September, Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty said 31-year-old Jawad Roohi suffered torture, which included “sexual assault by having ice poured on his testicles”.
19-year-old Mehdi Mohammadifard was held in solitary confinement for a week in a cell full of rats and raped, causing “anal injuries and rectal bleeding that required hospitalisation”.
Arshiya Takdestan, 18, was subjected to “beatings and death threats, including a gun being pointed at her head for not ‘confessing’ in front of a video camera.”
surf punishments
IHR and other rights groups have not yet published figures for executions in Iran for 2022.
But the IHR said in early December that more than 500 people had been executed by then – the highest figure in five years – while at least 333 people were expected to be executed in 2021, according to its figures. 25 percent more than the 267 in 2020. ,
As well as arresting thousands of people, Iranian security forces have also used lethal force, described by campaigners, to crack down on protests.
The IHR said that according to its latest count, security forces have killed at least 488 people in the nationwide protests, including 64 people under the age of 18.
It said that out of 64 children, 10 are girls.
Mohsen Shekhri, 23, was executed in Tehran on 8 December for wounding a member of the security forces, while Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was executed on 12 December for stabbing two members of the security forces to death in Mashhad. was publicly hanged. ,
On 7 January, Iran executed Mohammad Mehdi Karmi and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini for the murder of a member of the paramilitary force in November.
In another high-profile execution, Iran said on 14 January that it had executed Alireza Akbari, a British-Iranian dual citizen, after he had been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain. He was arrested more than two years ago.
Analysts say demonstrations have eased since November, but the protest movement still remains a challenge for the Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.