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Iranian regime executed nearly 600 people last year, report shows

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A new report by the Iran Human Rights (IHR) reveals that the Iranian Shiite governmental regime executed 582 people in 2022, a 75% increase from 2021, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Iran executes people for a range of offenses, including drug dealing, sodomy and protesting against the government. The state also allows the death penalty for children: for girls older than 8.7 years old and boys older than 14.6 years old.

Among those Iran executed last year, 30% were from the Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, which only makes up 2-6% of the population, JPost reports.

A further 44% of those executed were charged with drug related offenses. Others were executed in relation to the nationwide protests that followed the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022. One man was executed for committing sodomy.

In a statement to the Jerusalem Post Iranian Dissident Dr. Kazem Moussavi described the appalling state of the Iranian criminal justice system.

“Another man has been executed on a charge of sodomy, which he may or may not have committed, with or without consent,” Moussavi said. “What is certain is that this man almost certainly did not receive a fair trial under the notoriously biased Iranian judicial system.”

“Defendants are routinely denied access to lawyers and defense witnesses,” Moussaive continued. “They can be sentenced after brief ‘trials’ lasting as little as 20 minutes, with lawyers provided only shortly before the court hearing starts. People can be found guilty without corroborating evidence.”

In a separate statement about the use of the death penalty in Iran, IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam told AFP: “We fear the number of
executions will dramatically increase in 2023 if the international community does not react more. Every execution in Iran is political, regardless of the charges.”