Iran has executed over 300 death row inmates this year, the highest number since 2015, Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported on Thursday.
Some 307 people have been executed since 1 January 2023, 75% more than in the first five months of 2022, the Norway-based human rights organisation said.
In May alone, there were 142 executions – over four a day – in the Islamic Republic, according to IHR.
Iran has the highest number of executions in the world each year after China, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which denounce opaque procedures and confessions that are often extracted, including through torture.
Seven men have been hanged in connection with anti-regime protests that began last September. Several NGOs also claim that hangings have increased in connection with drug cases and murders, with ethnic minorities disproportionately targeted.
The Islamic Republic’s intensification of arbitrary executions is intended to spread fear in society in order to prevent protests and prolong its rule, said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
If the international community does not react more firmly to the current wave of executions, hundreds more people will fall victim to Tehran's killing machine in the months to come, he warned.
According to the report, 59% of those hanged this year, 180 people, were executed for drug-related reasons. More than 20% of those executed in May, or 30 people, also belonged to the predominantly Sunni Baluchi minority, which is concentrated in the south-east of the country.
Most Iranians are Chi’ites.
