Iran is witnessing a horrific state-sanctioned killing spree under the guise of judicial executions. Those executed include people convicted of drug-related offences, protesters, political dissidents, and members of oppressed ethnic minorities. Call for states to urgently intervene to pressure the Iranian authorities to halt all executions now.  

Since the Woman Life Freedom uprising, Iranian authorities have doubled down on their brutal use of the death penalty as a tool of oppression to terrorize the public and tighten their grip on power. Prisons have become sites of mass state-sanctioned killings.

In 2023, Amnesty International recorded the executions of at least 853 people by the Iranian authorities, marking a 48% increase from 2022. The majority of people were executed arbitrarily after grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts. Seven people were executed in connection with protests after grossly unfair sham trials.

In 2024, the authorities continued their execution spree, including against protesters, dissidents and ethnic minorities, again executing hundreds of people, many arbitrarily after grossly unfair trials held before Revolutionary Courts. The real number of executions is likely to be far higher as the Iranian authorities are not transparent and do not provide publicly accessible information on executions.

Kurdish humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, Kurdish dissident Verisheh Moradi and human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi are the only known women currently under sentence of death after convictions for politically-motivated offenses in Iran. They were convicted and sentenced in separate cases following grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts. Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution following the rejection of her appeal in early February 2025.

The death penalty is also used to target oppressed minority groups. Iran’s oppressed Baluchi ethnic minority, who constitute only about 5% of Iran's population, accounted for 20% of all executions. Individuals were also executed for their social media posts and for sexual relations between consenting adults.

Sign the petition and urge states to immediately call on Iran to immediately halt all drug-related executions, quash convictions and death sentences issued following grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts, and establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty. 

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the individual, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.