Human Rights Violations Report in Iran: Focus on Executions in 2024
5-January-2025
Category: ethnic minorities، executions، protesters
January 4, 2025
News Categories: Protests – Executions – Ethnic Minorities
Execution Statistics for 2024
The Statistical Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran has released a report detailing human rights violations in Iran during 2024.
This comprehensive report provides an in-depth analysis of the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran throughout 2024. It highlights the alarming rise in violations through meticulous examination of data and trends, underscoring a horrible escalation in executions. Statistical comparisons with previous years illustrate the increasing number of executions and shed light on the regime’s objectives in intensifying this practice.
According to the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the number of executions in Iran surged significantly in 2024, particularly following critical crises and structural blows to the Islamic Republic. The regime responded to mounting crises in the Middle East and direct threats to its stability by accelerating the pace of executions.
In the past year, over 40% of executions occurred in the final three months of 2024. The recent fall of the Syrian dictator, one of the Islamic Republic’s key allies in the region, has heightened fears among Iranian authorities that these crises could spill over into Iran’s borders. As a result, the regime has drastically increased the number of executions to suppress potential uprisings.
The report states that at least 1,016 prisoners were executed in various prisons across Iran in 2024. This figure represents a 14% increase compared to the previous year, during which at least 894 executions were recorded by the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran.
Among those executed in 2024 were 35 women and 9 juvenile offenders. Additionally, 4 executions were carried out in public.
Over the past year, Iranian authorities executed at least 15 political and ideological prisoners, drawing significant international condemnation. Despite this, the Islamic Republic has persisted in its oppressive practices, showing blatant disregard for international conventions in its pursuit of authoritarian goals.
The lack of accountability for the regime’s daily violations of human dignity and extrajudicial killings of prisoners has emboldened the Islamic Republic to continue its execution policies with impunity.
Throughout 2024, prisoners in at least 26 prisons staged hunger strikes every Tuesday to protest the widespread executions. This protest movement called on all human rights organizations and international bodies to take immediate and urgent action to halt executions. The protest, known as “No to Executions Tuesdays,” was also referenced in the report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights.
Over the past year, at least three prisoners were executed daily. These individuals were sentenced to death without a fair trial or judicial process, often deprived of legal representation and the right to defend themselves. Their death sentences also were confirmed in the same situation and they were ultimately sent to the gallows.
The authorities of the Islamic Republic must face international consequences for every execution to be compelled to halt and abolish the death penalty.
Since 2020, the number of executions has seen a significant increase.
The chart below compares the number of executions carried out in Iran over the past five years:
Execution rates in the last three months of 2024 have risen alarmingly, with at least 466 individuals hanged in the prisons of the Islamic Republic during this period.
The chart below illustrates the monthly distribution of executions in the last one year:
The rise in executions over the past five years, particularly among prisoners convicted of drug-related offenses, has sparked widespread international reactions. However, the authorities of the Islamic Republic, disregarding global warnings, have continued executions at an even faster pace.
According to the statistics from the Statistics Centre of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, of the 1,015 executions carried out in 2024 in Iran, the judiciary publicly announced only 70 cases through state media, while 946 other executions were uncovered by human rights activists and confirmed by the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran. This means 93.1% of the executions in the past year were carried out in secrecy.
The chart below compares the number of secret executions to those publicly announced in 2024:
The chart below compares the number of secret executions vs announced executions divided by month:
In addition to the routine execution of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic, the judiciary also issues death sentences for charges such as murder, drug-related crimes, “moharebeh” (waging war against God), “efsad-e-fel-arz” (corruption on earth), rape, and espionage. It is important to note that these prisoners are often sentenced to death without fair trials, legal representation, and frequently based on confessions obtained under torture.
Throughout 2024, at least 15 political and ideological prisoners were executed.
The chart below categorizes executions by the charges brought against the prisoners:
According to this chart, the highest number of executions is related to drug-related charges. Despite the approval of legislation in 2017 aimed at reducing death sentences for drug-related crimes, over the past five years, judicial authorities have continued to kill innocent people without regard for this law.
The diagram below illustrates the rise in the number of executions for drug-related offenses over the past year, broken down by month:
The highest number of executions among those accused of drug-related offenses pertains to the Baloch ethnic group. Execution is a tool for creating and spreading fear and intimidation in the Islamic Republic. As a result, the execution of political and ideological prisoners continues without fear of international accountability and without the need for justification.
Moreover, the authorities of the Islamic Republic show no concern for the conditions of sick prisoners. For instance, Yaqub Ali Moradi, who suffered from bipolar disorder at the time of the alleged crime, Rasheed Baluchi, who had a red card confirming mental health issues, and Ezzat Saeedi, who had intellectual disabilities and whose condition was confirmed by forensic medicine, were all executed. Additionally, according to Mizan News Agency, an Afghan prisoner with mental health issues was executed in Rafsanjan prison.
In 2024, the Islamic Republic authorities executed at least four prisoners in public. Public executions disregard all human rights and constitute collective torture. The authorities use public executions as a means to increase societal pressure and repression.
Iran is the only country that executes children, often in the most horrific ways. Judicial authorities detain juvenile offenders until they reach the legal age of 18 and then execute them. For these children, their birthdays become the worst days of their lives, as they bring them one step closer to the gallows. This is one of the most egregious forms of human rights violations. In 2024, the authorities executed at least nine juvenile offenders. Ismail Bar Kazai, an Afghan national in Yazd prison; Reza Shir Zehi, a Baloch citizen in Qezel Hesar prison; Soleiman Abbaspour in Zanjan prison; Mehdi Barahouei in Zahedan prison; Parsa Hassan Zadeh in Isfahan prison; Milad Ekhlaspour in Shiraz prison; Ramin Saadat in Miandoab prison; and Marjan Hajizadeh in Zanjan prison were among those executed while under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged crimes. Their identities have been confirmed by the “Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran.”
Out of the 1,016 individuals executed last year, at least 35 were women, executed in 18 prisons across the country. This means that 3% of those executed were women, who themselves were victims of the Islamic Republic’s misogynist laws. As mentioned earlier, one of these women, Marjan Hajizadeh, executed in Zanjan prison, was under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged crime and considered a child.
The chart below compares the number of executions of men versus women:
The Islamic Republic’s killing machine continues to issue death sentences for prisoners. As this report is being written, more than 40 political prisoners are at risk of execution. Mojahed Korkor, one of the detainees from the 2022 uprising, has been sentenced to death for the second time. Javad Vafaei has also been sentenced to death for the third time, accused of being a member of groups opposing the regime. Six detainees from the Mahsa uprising in Ekbatan Town, known as the Ekbatan prisoners, have also been sentenced to death.
In 2024, the arrest of citizens and the repression of people continued with greater intensity compared to the previous year. The Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, while warning about the alarming statistics of executions in Iran, calls on all Western governments, international communities, and legal and human rights organizations to take decisive action against the Islamic Republic’s killing machine and save innocent lives.