In the aftermath of the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, Iranian authorities have intensified their use of the death penalty to terrorize people and impose silence through brute force.
Demand Iranian authorities halt all executions!
In 2023, we recorded at least 853 executions as prisons across Iran were transformed into sites of mass killings. More than half (481) of the executions carried out for drug-related offences. Members of the oppressed Baluchi minority were also disproportionately impacted, accounting for 29% of all drug-related executions, despite making up about 5% of the population.
The Iranian authorities have consistently neglected the root causes of involvement in drug offences, such as economic deprivation and systemic marginalization. Individuals executed for drug-related offences in 2023, especially from the Baluchi minority, are also often executed in secret with families denied final visits. Families usually learn of the executions when called by prison authorities to collect the bodies of their loved ones.
Executions recorded in 2023 were the highest number since 2015 and mark a 48% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase from 2021.
We oppose the death penalty under all and any circumstances.
Sign the petition to call on the head of judiciary to immediately halt all drug-related executions, quash convictions and death sentences, and establish an official moratorium on executions, with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty.