Despite widespread opposition to the increasing number of executions in Iran, human rights activists report that at least 30 prisoners were executed in the country’s prisons between 3 and 7 August
According to reports published, on the morning of 7 August, the death sentences of 29 prisoners, including two Afghan and one Baloch citizen, were carried out simultaneously in Kizil Hesar Prison and Karaj Central Prison. Meanwhile, Iran Human Rights (IHR) has reported that at least 87 people were executed in the country’s prisons in the last month.
Analysts of Iranian affairs believe that Iran is leveraging its escalating tensions with Israel in the region as a cover to intensify domestic repression.
“The Islamic Republic is exploiting the international community’s focus on its tensions with Israel to carry out mass executions and intensify the atmosphere of repression in Iran,” Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, the director of the IHR, stated on 7 August. He warned that without an immediate response from the international community, hundreds more could be executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the coming months. Amiri-Moghaddam called on all countries with diplomatic ties to Iran to “condemn these crimes and take action to prevent further atrocities”.
The surge in executions comes as prisoners in 18 Iranian prisons have expressed their stance against this escalation in state killings. For the 28th week, prisoners protested the death sentences as part of the ‘No Execution Tuesdays’ campaign. Political prisoners in both the women’s and men’s wings of Lakan Prison in Rasht have also joined this movement. Rasht is the capital of Gilan province in northern Iran.
The execution of 29 prisoners in a single day at one prison is unprecedented in the last two decades of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s history. The last mass execution close to this magnitude took place on 2 July 2009, during the Green Movement protests, when 20 prisoners were put to death on drug-related charges at Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj.
According to the latest report from the IHR, at least 300 people have been executed in various prisons across Iran from the beginning of the year until the end of July. In 2023, human rights activists recorded at least 767 executions, including 21 women and two juveniles, with seven of these executions carried out in public. Additionally, 172 others have been sentenced to death this year.
