Stop executions in Iran

On Saturday, April 19, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) celebrated 53 years since the death penalty was used by the Saha dictatorship and the mullahs’ theocracy against the people.

The number of executions in Iran more than doubled in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year. At least 230 people, including eight women, have been executed since the beginning of January, mainly for murder and drug trafficking, compared to 110 executions recorded in the first three months of 2024.

« The risk of a significant increase in executions in the coming weeks is serious, » warns IHR’s Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, quoted in the press release. « The Iranian authorities could, as in the past, take advantage of the public’s focus on tensions between Iran and the United States to carry out more executions, including of political prisoners, » he added, referring to US President Donald Trump’s recent threats to bomb the country in the absence of an Iranian nuclear deal.

In 2024, the Iranian authorities violated their international obligations by executing individuals for crimes that do not fall within the most serious crimes under international law, by carrying out public executions, and by executing at least one juvenile. The Islamic Republic executes up to 5 to 6 people per day.

This figure, the highest since this census began in 2008, is likely an underestimate, as the vast majority (90%) of executions are not made public. Iran is the country that uses the death penalty the most each year after China, according to Amnesty International. The death penalty is a key lever of the Iranian judicial system, based on the application of Sharia law since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rallies are being organized internationally in more than 121 cities around the world, in Europe, and the Americas on April 18 and 19, echoing the slogan of the 2022 uprising: « Down with the tyrant, whether Saha or the mallahs. »

This call to action comes amid escalating domestic and international crises facing the Iranian regime, prompting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to launch a new wave of executions.

On April 15, 10 executions were carried out, including one juvenile offender, and 47 prisoners were executed over seven days, 17 of whom were Iranian Baluchis. Among those executed were eight political prisoners and three women.

Masoud Pezeshkian became President of Iran on July 28, 2024. Since August 2024, a new wave of executions has taken place, resulting in 1,015 people being sentenced to death and executed. Since the beginning of the year, 304 people have been executed.

The number of women executed has also increased: 31 were hanged in 2024, a 17% increase compared to 2023.

The death penalty was challenged in 2024 by the population, but also very courageously by those sentenced to death. In the majority of cases, when families have the choice between pardon (no execution) and qisas (execution), they opt for pardon. « Death Penalty Free Tuesdays, » a movement launched by prisoners a year ago, has endured and quickly spread to more than 30 prisons across the country.

In accordance with qisas laws, in cases of murder, the victim’s family can demand a death penalty as retribution (execution), blood money (diya), or simply grant a pardon. Citizens thus have the opportunity to oppose the death penalty by promoting forgiveness without being persecuted by the authorities. Over the past six years, the forgiveness movement has grown considerably in Iran, and as of 2024, at least 649 prisoners sentenced to death for murder have been pardoned by the victims’ families.

At least 534 executions in 2024 and more than 5,075 executions since 2010 have been based on death sentences handed down by the Revolutionary Courts.

Tehran has so far executed 10 men, including two in 2024, in connection with the massive « Women, Life, Freedom » protests that erupted in September 2022 after the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating the compulsory veil.

Mohammad Ghobadlu, 23, and Gholamreza Rasaei, 34, were executed in January and August 2024 respectively, the former for killing a police officer and the latter a Revolutionary Guard during the 2022 protests, after trials marred by irregularities, according to human rights groups.

Almost all executions are carried out by hanging, generally out of sight, in the prisons where the prisoners are held, although some have been carried out in public. Convicts are regularly denied access to their lawyers, who also point to the « systematic » use of physical and psychological torture to extract confessions, which judges most often rely on to convict them.

At least 13 activists from the « Women, Life, Freedom » movement remain on death row in Iran, according to the report by the two NGOs. Ethnic minorities—particularly Baluchis and Kurds—are also overrepresented among those sentenced to death. This is the case for Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi, Kurdish women’s rights activists convicted for their humanitarian work and who are at risk of execution.

©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN

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Gabriel MIHAI

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