Iran launched a spree of executions targeting activists and ethnic minorities, rights groups and campaigners said. Iran has executed at least 229 people as the regime in Tehran is targeting protesters following the uprising after the death of Mahsa Amini. Iran said it had executed a man who was sentenced to death after being convicted of working with Israel’s intelligence services.
He was found guilty of “collecting and providing classified information to the Mossad spy service with the aim of disrupting public order”, it said.
What UN has said on executions in Iran?
In November, the UN warned that Iran was carrying out executions “at an alarming rate.” At least 419 people had been sentenced to death in the first seven months of the year, a 30 per cent increase from the same period in 2022, the agency said. Kurdish and Baluchi minorities have been among the major victims of the killing spree. Among the executions there are also two women and one child, who were killed in November.
What rights groups have said on Iran executions?
Shahin Gobadi, spokesman for opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK), said that Iran is engaged in a war with the people of Iran itself to prevent another uprising inside the country- referring to September 2022 protests after Mahsa Amini’s death in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.
In the protests, more than 500 civilians were reportedly killed while thousands more were arrested arbitrarily, according to Iranian activists.
Shahin Gobadi said, “The mullahs want to prevent the resurgence of the uprising with a wave of executions, including the secret killing of political prisoners, and by intensifying repression, especially against the activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK) and the Resistance Units affiliated to the MEK.”
“It is time for the UK, the EU, its member states and the US to take practical steps instead of simply verbally condemning the gross violation of human rights in Iran,” he said.
According to a report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights, 604 people have been executed in the first ten months of this year, the highest number in eight years. In 2022, the rights group recorded 582 executions, with the highest recent records being 972 in 2015.