Iran executed 834 people last year, highest since 2015

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00:00 Well, last year, Iran executed at least 834 people, the highest number since 2015.

00:08 This Tuesday, the annual report on the death penalty in Iran was presented here in Paris.

00:13 The number of executions which Iran has carried out by hanging in recent years was up some

00:18 43 percent from last year.

00:21 Well, I'm joined now on the set by France 24's James Andre, who was at the press conference

00:26 earlier today where those numbers were released.

00:28 James, thank you for joining us.

00:30 We're seeing this huge rise in the number of executions.

00:33 Give us some of the reasons for why that happened so much.

00:36 Well, according to the NGOs, this is due to the context at the moment, including the fact

00:41 that indeed there was these very important protests last year known as the Women Life

00:46 Freedom protests that came after Massa Amimi, who was a young, 22-year-old Kurdish woman,

00:52 was arrested by the police in Tehran because her veil was not correctly placed, according

00:59 to them.

01:00 And then, well, she was, according to witnesses, beaten and died three days later in hospital,

01:04 which sparked huge protests across the country.

01:06 And well, according to the NGOs, and especially according to Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam, who was

01:11 speaking today at this press conference and who is the head of Iran Human Rights NGO,

01:17 well, the two things are linked, these protests and these executions.

01:21 This is what he had to tell us this morning.

01:23 This new wave of execution, this surge, started after the Women Life Freedom protests.

01:34 And the aim is to prevent more protests.

01:39 This is, you know, Iranian regime doesn't execute people to combat crimes because they

01:45 know that after 45 years, death penalty does not deter drug crimes or violent crimes, but

01:53 it creates fear.

01:54 And a regime that is not capable to solve people's daily problems, a regime that is

02:01 highly corrupt and doesn't have people's support, doesn't have any other option in order to

02:06 hold on to power.

02:08 Now what's interesting is these figures actually went up after the events of October 7th in

02:13 Israel.

02:14 And this is also what the NGO is saying.

02:15 And this is that basically it's double.

02:18 If you take per day, on average before the 7th of October, it's roughly two executions

02:23 per day.

02:24 And that goes up to four.

02:25 Now, according to these NGOs, well, this is linked to the fact that indeed the regime

02:31 and Iran needs, I'd say, to secure its position and to make sure there is no dissent at a

02:37 time where, of course, as you know, Iran is engaged in the regional situation, you know,

02:44 Houthi and also Hezbollah in Lebanon, who are all linked, if you like, to this axis

02:50 that's controlled by Iran.

02:54 And that means indeed it is not a good time for them to be, you know, any political dissent

02:58 within the country.

02:59 And it's interesting to note actually that most of these death penalties are not for

03:04 political motives.

03:05 And this is something that the head of Together Against the Death Penalty, who's co-hosting

03:11 this press conference, was telling me.

03:12 And that is that in fact eight protesters have been executed last year.

03:17 And that is to be compared to people executed for drug-related crimes, which is the largest

03:22 number, and murders.

03:24 But what he was telling me is that the Iranian authorities in fact send messages through

03:32 these executions saying, right, there is death penalty here and we will use it.

03:36 This is why these figures go up.

03:37 The idea is indeed to make sure that the population does fear this eventuality and indeed keeps,

03:45 you know, basically abide by the rules.

03:49 But also the relatively small number of protesters killed does go to show that indeed the Iranian

03:55 authorities do take care of the image on the international stage.

04:00 So you know, they do not want to be seen basically having politically motivated executions very

04:06 often, simply because they know that will be a problem on the international stage.

04:10 Now what we're being told as well is that basically what's happening in Gaza since the

04:14 7th of October has indeed, and Israel has, diverted public attention worldwide to that

04:21 crisis.

04:22 And indeed there is less attention and less focus when it comes to executions in Iran

04:28 and capital punishment.

04:30 Just very briefly, James, what are these NGOs who are presenting this report today calling

04:33 for?

04:34 What do they want the international community to do?

04:35 Well, what they want, they want the international community to basically, you know, condemn

04:41 these executions.

04:42 They say, you know, before the 7th of October, for example, if you have a publicly recognized

04:47 execution, because you've got to understand that of these 834 executions, most are not

04:53 made public by the Iranian authorities.

04:57 It would be about 150 last year that are officially recognized and publicized, if you will.

05:04 But usually each time one of these executions takes place, there will be international reaction.

05:09 The UN will react, the US, the NGOs will react, etc.

05:12 In this specific case, since the 7th of October, this has not been happening.

05:16 And they say this, in a sense, gives impunity to the Iranian regime when it comes to these

05:21 executions.

05:22 I would add one thing as well, is that when it comes to reasons for executions, and there

05:26 have been, you know, some juvenile offenders who have been executed also, reasons can be

05:31 very wide ranging.

05:33 Often minor drug, that would be considered minor here, drug crimes will be punished by

05:39 capital punishment.

05:40 But also, for example, if you take these juvenile cases, well, you can talk about a young man

05:45 who indeed posted, you know, the Koran burning video, the one that took place in Northern

05:49 Europe on his social media, did not comment in favor of it, but simply asked questions

05:54 while he was arrested and indeed executed for that.

05:57 So you see, it's very wide ranging.

06:00 And it is indeed, in a sense, according to these NGOs, made to make to deter the public

06:05 from dissent.

06:06 All right, James, thank you for that.

06:08 France 24's James Andre.

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