Authorities in Iran are believed to have significantly tightened the use of the death penalty, executing twice as many people so far this year compared to last year. At the same time, human rights groups in the country report that the country executes more women than any other country in the world, and the majority of them are believed to have been found guilty of having murdered their husbands, writes the BBC.
Was hanged in prison
On Wednesday, the Iran Human Rights Group announced that a woman was hanged in a prison for killing her husband. According to the organization, they should have married ten years earlier, when she was 15 years old. On the same day, two more women who were guilty of the same crime were executed.
The court is said to have claimed that the motive for the murder was “family disputes”. According to Iranian activists, many of the cases involve domestic violence – something that courts often turn a blind eye to.
Amnesty: Abominable attack on the right to life
This week, the human rights group Amnesty International accused Iran of embarking on a “horrific” round of executions in recent months. According to information, 250 people will have been executed in the first half of 2022, the BBC writes. It is said to be more than twice as many compared to the same period in 2021.
“The state machinery is carrying out murders on a large scale across the country in a heinous attack on the right to life,” Diana Eltahaway, deputy regional director at Amnesty International, told the BBC.
According to Amnesty, some of the convicts have been killed in mass executions. Twelve people are said to have been executed in one prison on June 15 and as many in another prison just over a week earlier.
There are no exact figures
According to the available statistics, ethnic minorities should be overrepresented, the BBC reports. However, there are no exact figures on the number of executions in the country, as the authorities do not publish all cases where the death penalty has been carried out.