{"id":248688,"date":"2021-10-09T03:12:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T08:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=248688"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:41:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T03:41:06","slug":"recent-executions-in-iran-point-to-likely-upsurge-in-general-human-rights-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/recent-executions-in-iran-point-to-likely-upsurge-in-general-human-rights-abuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Executions in Iran Point To Likely Upsurge in General Human Rights Abuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iran-execution-violation-of-the-Human-Rights-23012021\"<\/p>\n

BY: Elisabetta Zamparutti\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the month of September, at least 38 people were executed in Iran. At least 12 of those executions stemmed from drug-related charges that fall well short of international standards for the \u201cmost serious crimes.\u201d These statistics help to demonstrate that Iran is nowhere near to forfeiting its reputation as the country with the highest rate of executions per capita. In fact, they indicate that Iran is backsliding on previous promises of reform, including the reform of sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug offenders.<\/p>\n

The surrounding context for the latest executions tells an even darker story. Iran\u2019s abuse of the death penalty has only ever made up a fraction of the issues plaguing its criminal justice system. Other aspects of its abysmal human rights record were laid bare in August with the release of surveillance footage and documents obtained by activist hackers, which depict physical beatings and other acts of abuse in Evin Prison<\/a>, as well as instances of detainees attempting to kill themselves in the wake of systematic mistreatment and psychological torture, all taking place within unendurably harsh conditions.<\/p>\n

Even these revelations leave much for the international community to still uncover. The leaked footage from Evin Prison is reportedly devoid of images from the facilities’ worst sections, including wards reserved for political prisoners and operated by the Ministry of Intelligence and the intelligence division of Iran\u2019s hardline paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a>. However, a long history of activist disclosures offers some clue as to what is going on behind closed doors in those sections, while the recent political change in Iran has raised serious concerns about the prospect for such abuses to grow worse in the near future.<\/p>\n

The catalog of September\u2019s executions is by no means a comprehensive list of the number of people killed in detention by Iranian authorities during that month. Since Tehran often avoids formal announcement of death sentences being implemented, such statistics depend on the efforts of activist networks with eyes and ears inside the regime\u2019s prisons. Reports of undisclosed executions are typically confirmed by human rights organizations after they receive corroboration from multiple sources, but when reports prove elusive, the names of some victims may be lost.<\/p>\n

Even if this were not the case, the unofficial execution statistics would still not tell the whole story. It would, of course, not include persons who were driven to attempt suicide like those who appeared in the Evin footage<\/a> and were ultimately successful. Neither would it attempt those who suffered beatings like another subject of the footage, and later died from their injuries or from medical emergencies brought on by them. The fatal consequences of such emergencies are made all the more likely by the fact that Iranian prison authorities have a long history of denying treatment to inmates who are ill or wounded and especially to political prisoners for whom this deprivation is viewed as extrajudicial punishment or a form of pressure aimed at forcing confessions.<\/p>\n

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To Stop Executions in Iran Permanently, World Should Hold Mullahs to Account for 1988 Massacre<\/div><\/div>
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