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Iran executed over 900 people in 2024, says UN

January 7, 2025 at 1:55 pm

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk gives a speech at the opening of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 26 February 2024 [GABRIEL MONNET/AFP via Getty Images]

The number of people executed in Iran rose to 901 last year, including 31 women, some of whom were convicted of murdering their husbands after suffering abuse or being forced into marriage, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.

Most of the executions were for drug-related offences, but political dissidents and people connected with mass protests in 2022 over the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman were also among the victims, Reuters has reported.

“It is deeply disturbing that yet again we see an increase in the number of people subjected to the death penalty in Iran year-on-year,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk in a press release. “It is high time that Iran stemmed this ever-swelling tide of executions.”

In total, at least 901 people were executed by hanging last year in the Islamic Republic, compared with 853 in 2023, explained the UN rights office. That represented the highest number since 2015, when 972 people were executed.

The 2022 protests, which sparked some of the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, followed the death in police custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran’s mandatory dress code.

At least 31 women were executed in 2024, UN rights office spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters at a Geneva press briefing. This represented what she said was the highest number in at least 15 years.

“The majority of cases involved charges of murder,” she added. “A significant number of the women were victims of domestic violence, child marriage or forced marriage.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July last year, made promises during his campaign to protect the rights of women and minorities.

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