Latest news with #executions
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Iran executed at least 975 people last year, the highest number since 2015, UN report says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran carried out executions at 'an alarming rate' last year with at least 975 people killed, the United Nations chief said in a report that also cited other human rights abuses, from barriers to freedom of expression to the use of torture and arbitrary detention. U.N. deputy human rights commissioner Nada Al-Nashif, who presented the report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Wednesday, urged Iran to halt all executions as a first step toward a ban. She also called for urgent diplomatic negotiations to end the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. The 975 people executed in 2024 surpassed the estimated 834 in 2023 and was the highest rate of executions since 2015, said the report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Four of the executions were carried out publicly. Iran carries out executions by hanging. Of those executed, 52% were for drug-related offenses, 43% for murder, 2% for sexual offenses and 3% for security-related offenses, the report said. The number of women executed also increased. According to information received by the U.N. human rights office, at least 31 women were reported to have been executed in 2024, up from at least 22 in 2023. Among those 31 women were 19 reportedly executed for murder, including nine convicted of killing their husbands in cases involving domestic violence, forced marriage or child marriage. Also among those executed were women and men connected to protests that began in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested by Iran's morality police and accused of not wearing her head covering correctly. The report also said a disproportionate number of those executed were from Iran's minorities, with at least 108 Baluch prisoners and 84 Kurdish prisoners among those executed last year. Citing information received by the human rights office, the report said at least 31 people, including political dissidents, were executed for national security-related offenses such as spying for Israel. The rights office said it also received reports of torture, arbitrary detention and trials that failed to comply with due process and fair trial standards. As for the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, the report said information received by the rights office found that at least 125 journalists were prosecuted for their work in 2024. At least 40 female journalists were prosecuted or summoned for their reporting, the report said. Al-Nashif said Iran has cooperated with the human rights office, but Guterres regrets that the government has denied access to the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran that the Human Rights Council established.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Iran executed at least 975 people last year, the highest number since 2015, UN report says
Iran carried out executions at 'an alarming rate' last year with at least 975 people killed, the United Nations chief said in a report that also cited other human rights abuses, from barriers to freedom of expression to the use of torture and arbitrary detention. U.N. deputy human rights commissioner Nada Al-Nashif, who presented the report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Wednesday, urged Iran to halt all executions as a first step toward a ban. She also called for urgent diplomatic negotiations to end the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. The 975 people executed in 2024 surpassed the estimated 834 in 2023 and was the highest rate of executions since 2015, said the report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Four of the executions were carried out publicly. Iran carries out executions by hanging. Of those executed, 52% were for drug-related offenses, 43% for murder, 2% for sexual offenses and 3% for security-related offenses, the report said. The number of women executed also increased. According to information received by the U.N. human rights office, at least 31 women were reported to have been executed in 2024, up from at least 22 in 2023. Among those 31 women were 19 reportedly executed for murder, including nine convicted of killing their husbands in cases involving domestic violence, forced marriage or child marriage. Also among those executed were women and men connected to protests that began in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested by Iran's morality police and accused of not wearing her head covering correctly. The report also said a disproportionate number of those executed were from Iran's minorities, with at least 108 Baluch prisoners and 84 Kurdish prisoners among those executed last year. Citing information received by the human rights office, the report said at least 31 people, including political dissidents, were executed for national security-related offenses such as spying for Israel. The rights office said it also received reports of torture, arbitrary detention and trials that failed to comply with due process and fair trial standards. As for the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, the report said information received by the rights office found that at least 125 journalists were prosecuted for their work in 2024. At least 40 female journalists were prosecuted or summoned for their reporting, the report said. Al-Nashif said Iran has cooperated with the human rights office, but Guterres regrets that the government has denied access to the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran that the Human Rights Council established.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Iran executed at least 975 people last year, the highest number since 2015, UN report says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran carried out executions at 'an alarming rate' last year with at least 975 people killed, the United Nations chief said in a report that also cited other human rights abuses, from barriers to freedom of expression to the use of torture and arbitrary detention. U.N. deputy human rights commissioner Nada Al-Nashif, who presented the report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Wednesday, urged Iran to halt all executions as a first step toward a ban. She also called for urgent diplomatic negotiations to end the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. The 975 people executed in 2024 surpassed the estimated 834 in 2023 and was the highest rate of executions since 2015, said the report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Four of the executions were carried out publicly. Iran carries out executions by hanging. Of those executed, 52% were for drug-related offenses, 43% for murder, 2% for sexual offenses and 3% for security-related offenses, the report said. The number of women executed also increased. According to information received by the U.N. human rights office, at least 31 women were reported to have been executed in 2024, up from at least 22 in 2023. Among those 31 women were 19 reportedly executed for murder, including nine convicted of killing their husbands in cases involving domestic violence, forced marriage or child marriage. Also among those executed were women and men connected to protests that began in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested by Iran's morality police and accused of not wearing her head covering correctly. The report also said a disproportionate number of those executed were from Iran's minorities, with at least 108 Baluch prisoners and 84 Kurdish prisoners among those executed last year. Citing information received by the human rights office, the report said at least 31 people, including political dissidents, were executed for national security-related offenses such as spying for Israel. The rights office said it also received reports of torture, arbitrary detention and trials that failed to comply with due process and fair trial standards. As for the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, the report said information received by the rights office found that at least 125 journalists were prosecuted for their work in 2024. At least 40 female journalists were prosecuted or summoned for their reporting, the report said. Al-Nashif said Iran has cooperated with the human rights office, but Guterres regrets that the government has denied access to the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran that the Human Rights Council established.
BBC News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Iran executes Mojahed Kourkouri over 2022 anti-government protests
A man has been executed in Iran, three years after he was arrested during the nationwide anti-government protests in 2022, the judiciary Kourkouri, also known as Abbas Kourkouri, was sentenced to death after being convicted of armed attacks and membership of a "rebellion group", according to the judiciary's Mizan news agency. He was accused of killing of seven people, including nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak, during protests in the city of Izeh. Kian's family said he was killed by security forces, but authorities maintained that a "rioter" shot him. Amnesty International said Kourkouri was subjected to torture and that his trial was "grossly unfair". Kourkouri is the 11th person known to have been executed in relation to the protests, which were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran in September 2022 for allegedly wearing her hijab "improperly".Hundreds of people were killed and thousands detained in a violent crackdown by security forces, which portrayed the protests as "riots".Kourkouri was accused of opening fire on a car carrying Kian Pirfalak and his family in Izeh, in the south-western province of Khuzestan, at the height of the unrest that authorities blamed "terrorist agents" for Kian's killing, and later arrested Kourkouri during an armed raid the following month, during which Kourkouri was shot and injured in the knee, human rights groups family has repeatedly said it does not think Kourkouri was involved in the boy's Kian's funeral, the boy's mother was overheard in a video telling mourners: "Hear it from me myself on how the shooting happened, so they can't say it was by terrorists, because they're lying." "Plainclothes forces shot my child. That is it," Zeynab Molaei that the day, she appeared to recant the remarks in a state TV interview, warning that they should "not be misused". She looked visibly distressed, prompting many on social media to warn that she might have been judiciary's announcement that Kourkouri had been executed sparked condemnation among human rights International said Kourkouri's trial was unfair because he had been denied access to an independently chosen lawyer and his confessions, which were broadcast on Iranian state media, had been added that following his arrest, Kourkouri was held in solitary confinement and repeatedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including severe was initially sentenced in April 2023, but a judicial review of his case was filed to the Supreme Court in January 2024, Amnesty said. His conviction was later upheld and his sentence was sent for implementation later that year, it director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's other leaders "must be held accountable for the extrajudicial killing" of Kourkouri, "as well as for the murders of Kian Pirfalak and thousands of other innocent people"."The international community must break its silence in the face of this tsunami of executions carried out by the Islamic Republic," he human rights group Hengaw said at least 582 prisoners, including 19 political, religious, and security inmates, had been executed in Iranian prisons so far this last person to be executed in connection with the 2022 protests was Reza Rasaei in August last 34-year-old was sentenced to death in 2023 after what Amnesty called a "grossly unfair" trial that relied on forced confessions, which they said were "obtained under torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, suffocation and sexual violence".Iranian authorities accused him of having a part in the death of a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards during the protests - a charge Rasaei was executed in secret and his family was not given prior warning, Amnesty said.
Washington Post
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Iran says it executed 9 Islamic State group militants detained after a 2018 attack
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said Tuesday it executed nine militants of the Islamic State group detained after a 2018 attack. The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency announced the executions, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country's top court. It described the militants as being detained after they were in a clash in the country's western region with Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several IS fighters were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants' hideout. Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights. He said Tuesday's executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack. IS, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, was ultimately beaten back by U.S.-led forces. It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran's neighbor Afghanistan, for instance, IS is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban in 2021. The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide bombings in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike. That assault killed at least 94 people. The clash with Revolutionary Guardsmen in 2018 marked a point of heightened tensions between Iran and the militant group. Iran launched ballistic missiles at parts of eastern Syria, vowing revenge after militants disguised themselves as soldiers and opened fire at a military parade in the Islamic Republic's southwest. That attack killed at least 25 people and was claimed by both IS and local separatists. But Tehran's hand in Syria was weakened with the fall last year of President Bashar Assad, a key ally. Analysts say IS could take advantage of the security vacuum to stage a comeback while Syria's new leaders are still consolidating their control over the country and forming a national army.
