“Record keeping is the ruler of death”

On average, one person is executed daily in Iran. These words are from Diana Eltahawy, the director of the Middle East and North Africa office of Amnesty International. The statistics are for the first six months of the current year. As the leader of the regime says, “We have set a record.”

This record-breaking is not a new phenomenon. For years, Iran has been the second country after China in terms of the number of executions carried out and the first country in terms of per capita executions. Amnesty International also reports that in the past year, China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria had the highest number of executions in the world. (1) The first country on this list is Iran’s ally, and the Islamic Republic government has a 25-year agreement with the regime of that country. The fate of the last country on this ranking is also clear; the Syrian regime has been propped up by Iran’s regime for years, after the people’s uprising to overthrow the Assad regime. In summary, the main axis of countries that practice the death penalty is the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that’s it.

Until today, a total of 118 countries in the world have completely abolished the death penalty. Eight countries have abolished this punishment for crimes other than during wartime, and 28 countries have not recorded any executions in the past ten years despite having the death penalty. However, countries such as Iran, China, and other countries that carry out executions are a total of 55 countries. Equatorial Guinea is the last country to completely abolish the death penalty before World Day Against the Death Penalty in October 2022.

There are four methods used by countries that practice capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is the only country where beheading is used as a method of execution. In Vietnam, America, and China, lethal injection is used, while in countries like China, Belarus, North Korea, Somalia, and Yemen, the condemned individual is shot or executed by firing squad. In China, both methods are reportedly used; both shooting and lethal injection. However, countries such as Iran, Bangladesh, Botswana, Egypt, Iraq, Japan, South Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates have chosen hanging as a method of execution, which can be considered one of the most painful methods of execution currently used in the world. It breaks the neck, damages the spinal cord, blocks the vital artery, and causes suffocation. The body struggles and twitches on the rope until death. All of this is in addition to the shock caused by being hanged. Returning to the initial statistics, Iran has the highest number of executions per capita

However, this record keeping has details that seem to indicate the type of behavior of the Islamic Republic system towards various gender and ethnic groups. For example, during the World Day Against the Death Penalty in 2021 and 2022, the execution of women in Iran has increased by fifty-five percent. (4) On the other hand, in the executions carried out in the first six months of 2022, sixty-five Baloch citizens were executed in Iran. This number accounts for twenty-six percent of all executions carried out in the first six months of 2022 in Iran. The Baloch ethnic minority makes up about five percent of Iran’s population, yet this same minority, as mentioned, accounts for twenty-six percent of all executions in the first half of 2022.

The punishment of taking a life in Iran is divided into two main categories; one is related to retribution sentences, which are carried out for murder, and the other is execution sentences, which are usually retaliatory. In the first case, which is related to retribution sentences, the law is the claimant and acts according to the command of the Sharia, and in the second case, the parliament is the law-maker for executions, based on the proposal of the country’s judicial system. The majority of executions carried out in Iran between 2021 and 2022 were for retribution sentences, accounting for over 38.50%. This is while those sentenced for drug offenses accounted for 29.41% of executions during the same time period. (5) The bitter reality is that out of the 65 citizens executed in the first six months of 2022, 38 of them were Baloch citizens who were executed on charges related to drugs; meaning more than half of the

The question here is: why do the mentioned execution statistics have such a high percentage for Baloch citizens, who mostly reside in Sistan and Baluchestan province? One possible answer to this question may be found in the distribution of poverty in Iran. According to official statistics published on September 2021, Sistan and Baluchestan province has the record of being the worst province in terms of poverty with a rate of sixty-two percent. This is while the average poverty rate in the country was reported to be 31.4 percent and Yazd province had the best situation with a rate of sixteen percent. It should be noted that there are certainly other answers to this question as well. Ethnic discrimination in Iran is not a new issue in the past one hundred years and many ethnic groups living on the borders of Iran have experienced this discrimination; especially in provinces such as Sistan and Baluchestan, which have a large population of Iranian Sunni citizens. Considering the discriminatory Shia religious government

Let’s go back to the two types of execution in Iran. The first one, as mentioned before, is retribution. The retribution bill was proposed during the presidency of Dr. Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti to the judicial system; a bill that was strongly opposed by prominent jurists of that time and was criticized and rejected by people like Dr. Nasser Katouzian. (8) The National Front of Iran also announced a protest at that time, but the leader at the time, Ruhollah Khomeini, by declaring those who opposed the retribution bill as apostates and accusing them of going against the teachings of the Holy Quran (9), officially closed the door to any criticism of the bill. From then on, no one had the courage to oppose the bill in the official system of the country. If anyone did, they would face the fate of the National Front and its opponents on that day.

The second execution, however, was about defendants related to drug offenses. The bill to intensify punishments for drug offenders and disciplinary and educational measures for the treatment and employment of addicts was passed on the ninth of Khordad, 1359. In 1367, with the approval of the Expediency Discernment Council, the Anti-Drug Law was passed, and in 1376, an amendment to the Anti-Drug Law was approved by the Expediency Discernment Council, which changed the punishments to some extent, but kept the same general principles. In 1389, a change in the field of drugs emerged and led to the addition of psychoactive substances such as crystal to the law. In 1396, a single article was added to the Anti-Drug Law in an attempt to reduce drug-related executions in the country, but it seems that this reduction in executions is not in line with the views of the country’s official judicial authorities. As Hossein

The implementation of the death penalty in Iran has increased. The majority of these executions are related to recent orders from the current head of the judiciary, Mohseni Ejei, who seems to be trying to reduce the number of cases in the judicial system by executing previously convicted individuals. On the other hand, poverty is leading young people towards issues such as drug addiction. This is not just limited to provinces along the transit route, but poverty is also prevalent in Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, leading to drug addiction. Addicts become both producers and distributors, and they are the ones who end up being caught and sentenced to death. In the year 2021, there was news of a doubling of drug addiction among young people in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (11), and four years prior, in the year that a new article was added to the law on combating drugs, there was news of the feminization of addiction in this

Yes, we have set a record; in poverty, addiction, and execution. Countries around the world are gradually abolishing the death penalty for themselves, because they value human life and have come to understand that the death penalty and killing of suspects is not a solution to society’s problems. They have realized that the person accused of the worst and most heinous crimes is still a human being and not born from a criminal and delinquent mother. They have realized that they should treat the illness, not kill the patients; but in Iran, the officials of the judicial system, like a butcher, believe that the death penalty is effective. Iran is in the midst of popular protests; people who are seeking life, freedom, and equality, but their government is seeking death. However, the global experience has shown that death is not a cure. We must think about life, like the people of Iran who cry out for women, life, and freedom.

Notes:

1- Death Penalty 2021: Statistics and Numbers- Global Figures, Amnesty International, May 24, 2022.

2- Mariam, Ali, Infographic: Which countries still have the death penalty?, Al Jazeera, October 10, 2022.

3- Same 1.

4- On the occasion of World Day Against the Death Penalty; Report on One Year of Executions in Iran 2022-2021 (by the efforts of the Statistics Institution of Human Rights Activists in Iran), Hrana News Agency, 8 October 2022.

5- Same.

6- The horrific wave of executions in Iran must be stopped, Amnesty International, 27 July 2022.

7- Ranking of provinces based on poverty, number of deprived people in Iran; 26 million and 700 thousand people, Hamshahri Online, 3 Shahrivar 1400.

8- The draft of retribution and the ruling of apostasy of the National Front, official website of Mohsen Kadivar.

9- The bill of retribution and the national front, the portal of “Imam Khomeini”.

10- Fighting Against Drugs from Zero to One Hundred in the Country/ Reviewing the Flaws of the Amendment Bill, Mehr News Agency, 15 Tir 1401.

11- Drug addiction epidemic in Kohgiluyeh; the disaster that has affected Dehdasht, Tasnim News Agency, 2 October 2021.

12- “Feminization of Addiction” in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad/Poverty as the Most Damaging Factor, Alarming, 8 Dey 1396.