(Adnkronos) – At least one thousand death sentences have been carried out in Iran since the beginning of the year. This was reported by Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based NGO that campaigns against the death penalty in the Islamic Republic, according to which 64 inmates were executed last week alone, an average of more than nine per day. IHR points out that, due to censorship in the country, the actual number of sentences carried out could be much higher.
According to Iran Human Rights data, 50% of the executions are for drug offenses, 43% for murder, 3% for security-related charges such as ‘baghy’ (armed rebellion), ‘efsad-fil-arz’ (corruption on earth) and ‘moharebeh’ (enmity against God), 3% for rape and 1% for spying for Israel. Of the one thousand executions, only 11% have been confirmed by official sources.
“In recent months, the Islamic Republic has launched a mass killing campaign in Iranian prisons, the scale of which, in the absence of serious international reactions, is increasing day by day. The widespread and arbitrary executions of prisoners without due process constitute crimes against humanity and must be placed at the top of the international community’s agenda with regard to the Islamic Republic. Any dialogue between countries committed to respecting fundamental human rights principles and the Islamic Republic that does not include the execution crisis in Iran is unacceptable,” commented the director of the NGO, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
