The regime in Iran has executed at least 354 people by hanging in the first six months of the year, according to the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights (IRH).
That is significantly more than the corresponding period last year, when 261 people were executed according to the organization’s calculations.
Several human rights groups have accused Iran of increasing the number of death sentences in order to spread fear in society. The reason must be that they want to quell the large protest movement that took off in September last year, after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called moral police.
According to the IRH, non-Persian ethnic groups in the country are particularly affected. More than 20 percent of those executed belong to the Baloch minority group.
More than 200 people are said to have been executed after being accused of drug-related crimes, the IRH states.
“The death penalty is used to create societal fear and to prevent more protests,” says IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.