First Month of Pezeshkian’s Presidency: At Least 112 Prisoners Executed; Highest Execution Rate in 8 Months
4-September-2024
Category: executions
September 3, 2024
News Group: Executions
Breathing in Confinement: According to the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, at least 112 prisoners were executed in the first month of Pezeshkian’s presidency.
This significant increase in executions is due to the failure of the Islamic Republic’s rulers in escalating the war in the region. Over the past 44 years, the pillars of the regime’s power have been exporting terrorism and warmongering in the region and other countries, as well as repression, particularly executions, within Iran.
Simultaneously with the sham presidential elections, the authorities of the regime had halted the executions . However, after the inauguration of the new President, Pezeshkian, the execution of death sentences accelerated. In his first month of presidency, we witnessed the highest execution rate in the past 8 months.
In August 2024, at least 112 prisoners were hanged.
This month, 29 prisoners were executed collectively in one day, which was unprecedented since the 1980s and the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988. According to reports from some prisoners, the real number of executed prisoners is 38, but we have not yet been able to independently verify this figure.
In August, the gallows returned to the streets, and regime’s authorities hanged a prisoner in public in the city of Shahroud. This criminal act by the regime aims to spread fear and terror in society and among the people.
The execution of political prisoners with the clear intention of spreading fear among political activists and other prisoners also continued. Last month, a political prisoner named Reza Rasaei, who had been arrested during the 2022 uprising, known as the Mahsa Uprising, was executed.
In August, 4 female prisoners were also hanged in the prisons of Qazvin and Karaj.
Since the beginning of 2024, at least 457 prisoners have been executed.
The bar chart below shows the trend of increasing executions in the first 8 months of 2024:
This statistic is also the highest monthly execution rate in Iran over the past 5 years.
The diagram below shows the execution statistics for August over the past 5 years.
Out of the 112 prisoners executed in August 2024, only 6 were announced by state media. All other cases were uncovered through our own efforts, by communicating with the prisoners’ families or other prisoners inside the prisons.
In the past 8 months, out of 457 executions carried out, only 46 cases were officially reported by the state media. At least 411 other executions were carried out secretly.
The bar chart below shows the ratio of official to unofficial executions, broken down by month, in the first 8 months of 2024.
Judicial authorities execute prisoners on charges of “murder,” “drug-related crimes,” “political,” “rape,” and “espionage.” The pie chart below shows the executions carried out in August 2024, categorized by charges.
