At least 16 people were executed in Iranian prisons last year, according to the National Centre of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) based on official counts, which would mean an increase of almost 2023% compared to XNUMX.
Nearly 70% of these executions (695) have taken place since the end of July, since the beginning of the mandate of the current president, Masud Pezeskhian, the NCRI said in a statement, which also noted that on January 1, at least twelve prisoners were executed in four prisons.
For this opposition organization, which claims to collect this data from official public sources, the pace of executions is related to the political situation in Iran and, in particular, to “the crises and defeats of the regime.”
This would explain why in the fourth quarter, when it faced “serious defeats in the region” - an indirect reference to conflicts such as those in Syria or with Israel - or “growing economic and social crises”, Death sentences were soaring, accounting for 47% of all sentences for the year.
Half of all prisoners executed in 2024 were hanged in eight prisons: Qezelhessar (165), Shiraz (97), Idfahan (61), Tabriz (59), Karak Central (44), Qazvin (38), Mashhad (33) and Birjand (29). However, there is evidence that this occurred in 86 penitentiary centres in 31 provinces.
Of all the prisoners sentenced to death, 34 were women and seven were under 18 years of age at the time of the events for which they were sentenced. Half (502) had been convicted of drug-related offences.
NCRI President Maryam Rajavi believes that “The brutal wave of executions in 2024, especially in the fall, is a desperate attempt by Ali Khamenei (Iran's supreme leader) to prevent the uprising of an angry population that will settle for nothing less than the total overthrow of the regime.”
Rajavi called for the regime to be excluded from the international community and for any negotiations or deals to be made conditional on “ending executions and torture.”
Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.
I am almost certain that the Iranians will soon arrange for one of these executions for the decrepit tyrant.