In 2024, Iran’s ethnic minorities were overrepresented in death penalty statistics, and authorities did not publicize many executions in provinces with large Azeri, Kurdish and Baluch populations, according to an annual report by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) with the support of ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty). The watchdog recorded 975 executions, a 17 percent increase from 2023. “This surge represents the highest number of recorded executions in Iran in more than two decades,” according to the report. The central government, dominated by Persians, has long discriminated against ethnic minorities and has imprisoned and executed critics. The following are excerpts from the report.
2024 ANNUAL REPORT AT A GLANCE
- At least 975 people were executed in 2024, a 17% increase compared to 834 in 2023.
- Only 95 executions (less than 10%) were announced by official sources compared to 15% in 2023, 12% in 2022, 16.5% in 2021 and an average of 33% in 2018-2020.
- 90% of all executions included in the 2024 report, i.e. 880 executions, were not announced by the authorities.
- At least 503 people (51.6%) were executed for drug-related charges compared to 471 in 2023, 256 in 2022, 126 in 2021 and an average of 24 per year in 2018-2020.
- Only 15 (3%) of the 503 drug-related executions were announced by official sources.
- At least 419 executions (43% of all executions) were for murder charges.
- 2 protesters were among those executed for murder charges.
- At least 31 people, amongst them 9 Kurdish political prisoners, and a political dissident abducted from a neighbouring country, were executed for security-related charges (moharebeh and efsad-fil-arz).
- At least 22 people were executed for rape charges.
- 4 people were hanged in public spaces.
- At least 1 child offender was among those executed and cases of 3 possible others were still being investigated at the time of writing.
- At least 31 women were executed, the highest number over at least 17 years.
- At least 5 of those executed suffered from psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
- At least 80 Afghan nationals were executed in 2024, compared to 25 in 2023 and 16 in 2022.
- At least 534 executions in 2024 and more than 5,075 executions since 2010 have been based on death sentences issued by the Revolutionary Courts.
- At least 649 prisoners sentenced to death for murder charges were forgiven by the families of the murder victims as per qisas laws.
