“Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing 694 people between 1 January and 15 July, 2015”, said the London-based rights group, in what it termed an unprecedented spike.
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Iran has seen a “shocking” surge in executions in 2015, with the number of “judicially-sanctioned killings” set to soon surpass the total number killed throughout last year, worldwide human rights advocacy group Amnesty global said Thursday. In most cases, public executions are carried out using cranes, while in prisons they are usually carried out by having the object the prisoner is standing on kicked out from beneath their feet, IHR said.
According to a report published in March by Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on Iran, at least 753 people were executed in 2014, a 12-year high. “They are imposed either for vaguely worded or overly broad offences, or acts that should not be criminalized at all, let alone attract the death penalty”.
Amnesty also condemns the trial process preceding the executions, which it described as “deeply flawed, ‘ claiming that detainees are often denied access to lawyers in the investigative stages, and there are inadequate procedures for appeals, pardons and commutations”.
The surge in executions reveals just how out of step Iran is with the rest of the world when it comes to the use of the death penalty.
The country’s tough anti-narcotic laws means death sentences can be applied for trafficking more than 5kg of drugs derived from opium or more than 30kg of heroin, morphine, cocaine or other chemical derivaties.
“For years, Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to spread a climate of fear in a misguided effort to combat drug trafficking, yet there is not a shred of evidence to show that this is an effective method of tackling crime”, Mr Boumedouha said.
Several thousand people are believed to be on death row in Iran, although authorities there do not release exact figures.
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Among those being executed are also members of ethnic and religious minorities convicted of vague charges such as “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth” as well as those found guilty of rape and murder, Amnesty reported. The families of those executed are sometimes informed days, if not weeks, later.
