Iran breaks its record for executions: at least 900 people in 2024
The UN High Commissioner denounces that the Ayatollahs' regime is increasing this number every year and demands that it "put an end to this wave" of executions.
Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk denounced that Iran executed at least 901 people in 2024, a new record for the Tehran regime compared to 853 in 2023. Türk called on the ayatollahs to put an end to "this wave."
In a statement, picked up by AFP, Türk considered that "it is very worrying to note that the number of people executed in Iran is increasing every year. It is time for Iran to put an end to this wave of executions."
The high commissioner added that, from the supranational body "we oppose the death penalty under any circumstances. It is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and presents the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people," he added.
Iran denounced as using executions to instill fear
According to the UN, most people executed in 2024 were sentenced to death for drug-related offenses, but dissidents and demonstrators who took part in the 2022-2023 protests were also executed. Human rights advocates have been denouncing that the Iranian authorities are using capital punishment to instill fear in society, especially after the protests that shook the regime in 2022 and 2023.
The United Nations also noted an increase in the number of women executed. According to Iran Human Rights, the regime applied the death penalty to 31 women during the past year. This figure is also a record since it began documenting the application of the death penalty in the Islamic republic in 2008.
Iran, the country that uses capital punishment the most
According to several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Iran is the country that uses the death penalty the most, not counting China for which no figures are available. Iran applies the law of talion, known as qisas, which stipulates that a murder must be "paid for" with the loss of another life, unless the victim's family forgives or accepts compensation.
Some 170 countries have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty, according to the UN.
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