UANI Statement and Fact Sheet on Executions in Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2016
Phone: (212) 922-0063
[email protected]

UANI Statement and Fact Sheet on Executions in Iran 
Iran Leads the World in Executions Per Capita

According to the UN, Iran "continues ... to execute more individuals per capita than any other country in the world" and executions "have been rising at an exponential rate since 2005." Not only did Iran commit a "shocking" total of 753 executions in 2014, but the regime possibly carried out more than 1,000 executions in 2015, an average of about 3 executions a day.

Said UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace:

Iran's recent statements expressing outrage over executions in Saudi Arabia are disingenuous and contemptible political posturing. Iran is the world's leading executioner per capita and routinely uses public hangings to victimize political opponents, minorities, and homosexuals. Iran's leadership should take a hard look in the mirror and address its own egregious execution record.

UANI has assembled the following facts and figures about Iran's use and abuse of capital punishment:

Global Rankings

#1
Executions Per Capita (UN)
#1 Executions of Children and Child Offenders (Amnesty)
#2 Executions Overall (Human Rights Watch)


By The Numbers

957
| Executions in 2015 (IHRDC)
753 | Executions in 2014 (UN)


Victims

Iran particularly targets ethnic and religious minorities for execution:
 

* Sunni Muslims  * Ahwazi Arabs  * Baha'i  
* Kurds   * Baluchis  * Christian converts 
* Azerbaijanis     


Also targeted for execution:
 

* Political dissidents  * Homosexuals  * Children and child offenders 
* Religious dissidents 
 
 
* Woman engaging in self-defense   * Low-level and nonviolent drug offenders 


Methods of Execution

Iran executes the majority of convicts by hanging within prisons. The regime, however, also regularly carries out executions in public. In 2015, Iran reportedly executed 57 people in public, an average of more than one public execution a week. In many of these cases, the victim is publicly hanged from a construction crane, an especially slow and painful method of execution.

Stoning also continues to be a state-sanctioned form of execution. In December, Iranian media reported that a woman had been sentenced to death by stoning for her alleged involvement in the murder of her husband.

###