UN human rights specialists have mentioned they’re appalled by a “dramatic escalation” within the variety of executions in Iran, with greater than 1,000 individuals killed throughout the first 9 months of 2025.
“The sheer scale of executions in Iran is staggering and represents a grave violation of the suitable to life,” the five special rapporteurs warned in a joint statement.
They famous that half of the identified executions have been for drug-related offences and that 9 hangings per day on common had been documented in current weeks.
There was no quick remark from Iran. However the authorities has beforehand defended its use of the demise penalty, saying it’s restricted to solely “essentially the most extreme crimes”.
It comes on the identical day as Iran mentioned a person accused of spying for Israel had been executed.
The judiciary’s Mizan information company named him as Bahman Choubi Asl and reported that he was a database professional who labored on “delicate telecommunications tasks” and was a “trusted spy” of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company, with out offering any proof.
He was hanged on Monday after the Supreme Court docket rejected his enchantment towards his conviction on the cost of “corruption on Earth”, it added.
Mizan didn’t say when Asl was arrested, and his case had not beforehand been reported by Iranian media or human rights teams.
He was the eleventh man convicted of spying for Israel to be executed by Iran this 12 months, with 10 of the executions carried out because the 12-day struggle between the 2 nations in June.
Final week, Amnesty Worldwide and the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights mentioned they’d documented the executions of 1,000 individuals in Iran since January – already surpassing final 12 months’s reported whole of 975.
According to Iran Human Rights, 50% of these executed this 12 months have been accused of drug-related costs; 43% of homicide; 3% of the security-related costs of “armed riot towards the state”, “corruption on Earth” and “enmity towards God”; and 1% of spying.
They included 28 girls, 58 Afghan nationals and what Amnesty described as a disproportionate variety of individuals from minority communities.
Each teams mentioned the executions adopted routinely unfair trials that have been marred by allegations of torture and different ill-treatment.
“Iran seems to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted requirements of human rights safety,” the UN particular rapporteurs on human rights in Iran, arbitrary executions, minority points, torture and different merciless punishment, and human rights in Afghanistan, warned on Monday.
The hanging of 499 individuals for drug-related offences was “notably alarming”, they added.
Between 24 and 30 such executions have been recorded per 12 months from 2018 to 2020, following an modification to Iran’s Regulation on Combating Illicit Medication. Nevertheless, the specialists mentioned the quantity has surged since 2021, with a complete of 503 reported final 12 months.
Worldwide regulation restricts capital punishment to solely the “most critical crimes”. “Drug offences don’t meet this threshold,” the specialists warned.
Iran Human Rights reported on Sunday that greater than 500 individuals convicted of drug-related offences have been at present on demise row at Ghezel Hesar jail in Karaj alone, and that their sentences have been all on the “implementation stage”.
Iran’s highly effective constitutional watchdog the Guardian Council can be at present reviewing a draft espionage invoice that redefines “collaboration with hostile states”, which is punishable by the demise penalty, to incorporate acts akin to on-line communication, collaborating with overseas media, and so-called “ideological alignment”, in keeping with the UN human rights workplace.
The UN specialists mentioned the worldwide neighborhood couldn’t “stay silent within the face of such systemic violations” and that states “should take concrete diplomatic motion to stress Iran to halt this execution spree”.
