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Iran: 'staggering' execution spree with nearly 700 people executed in just over six months - new figures
New figures show 694 executions up to 15 July, with executions set to top 1,000 for year
The Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing 694 people between 1 January and 15 July this year, said Amnesty International today, in an unprecedented spike in executions in the country.
This is equivalent to executing more than three people per day. At this shocking pace, Iran is set to surpass the total number of executions in the country recorded by Amnesty for the whole of last year. Executions did not even stop during the holy month of Ramadan - in a departure from established practice, at least four people were executed over the past month.
Each year the Iranian authorities acknowledge a certain number of judicial executions - however, many more judicial executions are carried out but not acknowledged. As of 15 July, the Iranian authorities had officially acknowledged 246 executions this year but Amnesty has received credible reports of a further 448 executions carried out in this time period. In 2014, 289 people were executed according to official sources but credible reports suggested that the real figure was at least 743.
Death sentences in Iran are particularly disturbing because they are invariably imposed by courts that are completely lacking in independence and impartiality. They are imposed either for vaguely-worded or overly-broad offences, or acts that should not be criminalised at all, let alone attract the death penalty. Trials in Iran are deeply flawed, detainees are often denied access to lawyers, and there are inadequate procedures for appeal, pardon and commutation.
Currently, based on monitoring work done by Amnesty and other human rights organisations, several thousand people are believed to be on death row in Iran. The Iranian authorities have said that 80% of those awaiting execution are convicted of drug-related offences. They have not, however, provided an exact number. Prisoners in Iran are often left languishing on death row, wondering each day if it will be their last. In many cases they are notified of their execution only a few hours beforehand and in some cases families learn about the fate of their loved ones days, if not weeks, later.
Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Said Boumedouha said:
“Iran’s staggering execution toll for the first half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale.“If Iran’s authorities maintain this horrifying execution rate, we are likely to see more than 1,000 state-sanctioned deaths by the year’s end.“The Iranian authorities should be ashamed of executing hundreds of people with complete disregard for the basic safeguards of due process.“The use of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in a country like Iran where trials are blatantly unfair.”
Death penalty for drugs offences
The reasons behind this year’s shocking surge in executions are unclear but the majority of those put to death in 2015 were convicted on drug charges. Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Law provides mandatory death sentences for a range of drug-related offences, including trafficking more than 5kg of narcotics derived from opium or more than 30g of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives. This is in direct breach of international law, which restricts the use of the death penalty to only the “most serious crimes” - those involving intentional killing. Drug-related offences do not meet this threshold.
Amnesty is pointing out that there is also no evidence to prove that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime and drug trafficking or use. Earlier this year, the deputy of Iran’s Centre for Strategic Research admitted that the death penalty has not been able to reduce drug trafficking levels.
Many of those convicted of drug-related offences come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their cases are rarely publicised. In a letter circulated online in June, 54 prisoners held on death row in Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran described their plight:
“We are the victims of a state of hunger, poverty and misery, hurled down into the hollows of perdition by force and without our will … If we had jobs, if we did not need help, if we could turn our lives around and stop our children from going hungry, why should we have gone down a path that guaranteed us our death?”
Said Boumedouha added:
“For years, Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to spread a climate of fear in a misguided effort to combat drug trafficking, yet there is not a shred of evidence to show that this is an effective method of tackling crime.”
Ethnic and religious minorities executed
Those executed in Iran include members of ethnic and religious minorities convicted of “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth”, including Kurdish political prisoners and Sunni Muslims.
Hundreds of unacknowledged executions
Each year Amnesty reports both the number of officially acknowledged executions in Iran and the number of executions the organisation has been able to confirm took place, but which were not officially acknowledged. When calculating the annual global total number of executions Amnesty has, to date, only counted executions officially acknowledged by the Iranian authorities. Amnesty has reviewed this approach and believes it fails to fully reflect the scale of executions in Iran, about which the authorities must be transparent. In its 2015 annual report on the death penalty, and all other reporting on the death penalty in Iran, Amnesty will use the combined figure of officially acknowledged executions and those executions not officially admitted but which the organisation has confirmed took place.