By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -Iranian authorities have executed at least 841 people so far this year, marking a major increase, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday.
One hundred people were executed in July, more than double the number of people executed in July of last year, according to the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights.
They included women, Afghan nationals and ethnic minorities such as Baloch, Kurdish and Arab citizens.
“The high number of executions indicates a systematic pattern of using death penalty as a tool of state intimidation and repression of any dissent,” the chief spokesperson for the U.N., Ravina Shamdasani, told reporters in Geneva.
Shamdasani said OHCHR had observed a disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities and migrants on death row.
Iran has ignored multiple calls to join the worldwide movement towards the abolition of the death penalty, Shamdasani said.
Eleven people are currently facing imminent execution, six of whom are charged with “armed rebellion”, OHCHR said. Five others face the death penalty in relation to their participation in the 2022 protests.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk has called on Iran to temporarily halt carrying out the death penalty as a step towards completely abolishing the use of capital punishment.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Friederike Heine and Miranda Murray)
Comments