Iran has executed a thousand convicts since the beginning of the year

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At least 1,000 death row inmates have been executed in Iran since the beginning of the year, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), which denounces a "campaign of massacres" in Iranian prisons.

This number is the highest since the Norway-based organization began recording executions in 2008. Three months before the end of the year, it already surpasses the record of at least 975 executions recorded in 2024.

The IHR indicated that, in the last week alone, at least 64 executions were recorded, which gives an average of nine hangings per day , and stressed that these numbers are likely underestimated due to the lack of transparency of the Iranian authorities on the matter.

Human rights organizations regularly accuse the Islamic Republic of carrying out executions at an unprecedented rate in recent years, in a context marked by protests against Ali Khamenei's rule in 2022-2023 and the 12-day war against Israel in June.

The country had already seen waves of executions in the 1980s and 1990s, after the 1979 Islamic revolution and during the Iran-Iraq war.

"In recent months, the Islamic Republic has launched a campaign of massacres in Iranian prisons, the scale of which, in the absence of a serious international response, is growing daily. The arbitrary and widespread executions of prisoners, without respect for due process and fair trial guarantees, constitute crimes against humanity," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian attends the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which brings together world leaders, as Tehran faces the reinstatement of economic sanctions over its nuclear program.

According to the NGO's data, half of the executions are related to drug trafficking crimes , 43% to homicide convictions, 3% to security-related charges (armed rebellion, "corruption on Earth", "enmity against God"), 3% to rape and 1% to charges of espionage for Israel, an enemy of the Islamic Republic.

Iran ranks second in the world in terms of executions, behind only China, according to human rights organizations, including Amnesty International (AI).