Despite a shift to a 'moderate' president, Iran's executions surge this year

As global attention focused on Iran's latest presidential election and its potential impact on the country's foreign policy and nuclear program, one reality within the country remained unchanged: the execution chambers.

Though not new to Iran's domestic politics, the use of capital punishment has drawn renewed international scrutiny since the establishment brutally suppressed the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising.

Many protesters arrested during the movement were sent to the gallows despite widespread global condemnation.

In May 2023, as the final embers of the uprising still flickered, The New Arab reported that Iran’s military theocracy executed almost one person every six hours. Amnesty International recorded 853 executions in that year, the highest figure since 2015.

In high-profile cases such as that of rapper Toomaj Salehi, experts pointed out that Iranian authorities wield the death penalty to instil fear among dissidents, especially when the regime faces mounting domestic or international pressure.

Surge in unlawful executions

As the excitement surrounding Iran's June presidential elections faded and the moderate Masoud Pezeshkian succeeded the hardline Ebrahim Raisi, the harsh reality of executions came into sharper focus.

On 2 September, the UN raised concerns over the alarming spike in executions since January 2024, with a particularly sharp increase in August.

According to the report, at least 81 people were executed in August alone—nearly double the 45 reported in July—bringing the total number of executions this year to over 400, including 15 women.

The report also pointed to troubling cases of unfair trials, noting that "serious violations of fair trial and due process rights mean that the death penalty as it is currently practised in the Islamic Republic of Iran amounts to unlawful execution."

Mai Sato, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, put the number of August executions higher at 93.

"I have been a special reporter for Iran for a month. In August 2024, at least 93 people were executed. According to the information received, only a part of these executions has been officially reported by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which highlights the need for transparency," she wrote on X.

Before the international community responded to the alarming number of executions in Iran, the family members of the executed prisoners spoke out about the lack of sufficient media and international attention to capital punishment in the country.

In August, the execution of Reza Rasaei, a protester from Iran's 2022 anti-government demonstrations, highlighted the lack of media attention on political prisoners and their families.

Rasaei was executed in Kermanshah prison after being accused of killing a police officer, charges he repeatedly denied.

In the wake of Rasaei's death, families of other political prisoners have urged global intervention to prevent further executions. The sister of Mojahed Korkor, a protester on death row, expressed her grief on social media, writing: "Reza Rasaei was executed in silence. Don't let my brother suffer the same fate—be his voice."

In a video statement, the sister of another death row protester, Mahmoud Mehrabi, criticised this neglect, pleading, “Hear the cries of the families seeking justice, whose loved ones are imprisoned and who must beg the media to be their voice.”

No to executions from inside prisons

While campaigns against capital punishment continued outside Iran's prisons, political prisoners also organised a movement within the jails called "Tuesdays of No to Execution," where participants went on hunger strike every Tuesday to oppose the death penalty.

This campaign, which began in January at Ghezel Hesar Prison, expanded as inmates from more prisons joined. According to the latest data, prisoners from 21 facilities across 19 cities participated in these weekly hunger strikes.

Immediately after the presidential election, these prisoners warned that executions of both dissidents and non-political prisoners were likely to resume.

They suggested that whenever Iranians united in significant protests against the ruling minority, the government's machinery of repression intensified, using executions to instil fear and prevent further uprisings and social or political protests.

The prisoners pointed out that the record-low turnout in the first round of Iran's presidential election occurred because the majority of Iranians chose to boycott the vote in protest against the ruling elite.

Following months of weekly hunger strikes, the movement attracted international attention. On 28 August, 68 NGOs and human rights groups issued a joint statement supporting this prison movement and called on international organisations to stand with Iranian political prisoners in their opposition to capital punishment.

Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organisation and one of the signatories, praised the perseverance of prisoners who had been on strike against the death penalty for 31 weeks.

He noted that their efforts had influenced the global movement against capital punishment and inspired many

"Our message to these brave people is that we heard your voice, and we will stand by you until this inhumane punishment is abolished," he concluded.