Iran executed 582 people in 2022, in 75% increase from previous year

The Iranian government reportedly executed at least 582 people in 2022, marking a 75 per cent increase from the previous year in what a report has labelled the country’s “execution machine”.

In a report by two human rights groups, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), it was revealed that Iranian authorities hanged at least 582 people in 2022 – a sharp increase of 75 per cent from 333 people executed in 2021. It is cited as the highest number of hangings in the country since 2015.

That rise has been explained by the fact that Iranian authorities arrested, detained and often prosecuted tens of thousands in the protests which erupted throughout the country since September, when 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini died under police custody for allegedly violating hijab laws.

Dozens of Iranians have been given the death sentence over their involvement in the protests, in overtly political prosecutions but, according to IHR Director, Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, “international reactions to the death sentences against protesters have made it difficult for the Islamic Republic to proceed with their executions”.

Rather than focus on political charges, in an effort to avoid international pressure while still continuing to “spread fear among people”, Moghaddam said that “the authorities have intensified the execution for non-political charges. These are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s execution machine.”

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The report especially expressed concern over the sharp increase in hangings over drug-related charges, of which made up 44 per cent of the total 582 executions last year. Half of those 582 hangings themselves took place after the protests began, making drug-related offenses a key factor in the country’s death penalty prosecutions in 2022, allegedly providing a cover for executions which would otherwise have been ruled as political.

The report revealed that murder charges made up the majority of executions, with 288 – 49 per cent of the hangings – being based on those charges.

It also highlighted the targeting of persecuted minorities who are largely Sunni Muslims in the country, reporting that Kurds and Arabs executed by Iranian authorities were significantly disproportionate to their population size, especially for the aforementioned drug crimes. The Baluch minority also accounted for 30 per cent of all executions across the country, despite representing only 2-6 per cent of Iran’s population.

“The death penalty is part of the systematic discrimination and extensive repression ethnic minorities of Iran are subjected to”, the report stated.

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