Iran has intensified its use of capital punishment, as reported by a nongovernmental organization, with at least seven individuals, including two women, executed on Saturday.
Among those executed was Parvin Mousavi, a 53-year-old mother of two, who was hanged in Urmia prison for drug-related offenses. Another woman, Fatemeh Abdullahi, 27, was executed in Nishapur for the murder of her husband, also her cousin.
This surge in executions comes after the Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays, with at least 223 executions recorded this year, including 50 in May alone.
Iran has been criticized for its high number of executions, particularly of women, with activists highlighting cases of forced or abusive marriages leading to convictions.
Iran escalated its use of capital punishment last year, executing more individuals than in any year since 2015, according to non-governmental organizations.
They accuse the Islamic Republic of employing executions as a means to intimidate following protests that erupted in autumn 202.
“The international community’s silence is unacceptable,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR, to AFP.
“The executed individuals come from the impoverished and marginalized segments of Iranian society and did not receive fair trials with proper due process,” he added.
IHR revealed that Mousavi had spent four years in prison. According to a source, she was unknowingly given a package containing 5 kilograms of morphine, believing it to be medicine, in exchange for the equivalent of 15 euros.
“They are the inexpensive victims of the Islamic Republic’s lethal machinery, designed to instill fear and deter new protests,” stated Amiry-Moghaddam.
Additionally, the organization expressed concern for a member of Iran’s Jewish community, Arvin Ghahremani, 20, who faces execution on Monday in Kermanshah for a murder conviction stemming from a street altercation when he was 18.
His mother, Sonia Saadati, pleaded for his life in an audio message received by IHR.
His family seeks to negotiate with the victim’s family to spare him in accordance with Iran’s Islamic law of retribution, or qisas.
Additionally, Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving member of a group of seven Iranian Kurdish men arrested in December 2009 and January 2010, faces execution for alleged involvement in extremist groups.
Six others from the same case were executed recently, almost 15 years after their initial arrest, including Khosro Besharat, hanged in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran this week.
Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence, perceived by activists as retaliation for supporting the 2022 protests through his music, has prompted international outcry, with his lawyers currently appealing the verdict.
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