The use of the death penalty increased by 43% as a result of mass protests after Mehsa Amini’s death.
Iran executed at least 834 people in 2023, the second-highest number of executions in two decades, according to a report by rights groups.
A report released on Tuesday by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) showed a 43 percent increase in the use of the death penalty last year in response to nationwide protests. came 2022 due to Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody.
However, while nine executions during the 2022 protests were directly linked to attacks on security forces, the use of the death penalty for other charges also increased. Drug-related cases account for more than half of the total, with 471 people sentenced to death on such charges.
The report also noted that members of ethnic minorities, particularly the Sunni Baloch from Iran’s southeast, “were overrepresented among those sentenced to death”.
At least 167 members of the Baloch minority were executed, which was 20 percent of the total last year. The minority is about 5% of Iran’s population.
IHR director Mahmoud Amiri-Moghdam called the figures a “staggering total”.
“Inciting social fear is the only way for a government to stay in power, and the death penalty is its most important tool,” he said.
![A faceless woman stands on top of a vehicle as thousands of people head to the Ahi cemetery in Saqqiz, the home of Mahsa Amini.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/000_32M77DV.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C553)
He also criticized the lack of international outcry over Tehran’s encouragement.
He said that the inconsistency in the international community’s reaction to the death penalty in Iran is regrettable and gives wrong signals to the authorities.
Last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the crackdown on the death penalty after civil unrest amounted to “state-sanctioned murder”.
According to the report, while most executions take place in the confines of prisons, seven were carried out in general – especially by 2022.
At least 22 women were executed last year, the highest number in the last decade.
Fifteen were hanged for murder. NGOs have long warned that women who kill an abusive partner or relative risk the death penalty.