Iran executed over 100 in first three months of 2022: UN

GENEVA: Iran executed more than 100 people in the first three months of 2022, continuing a worrying upward trend, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that was presented on Tuesday.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif presented Guterres’ latest report on Iran, decrying that executions in the country were on the rise.

"While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women," she said, adding that the trend had continued this year. Between January 1 and March 20, she said, "at least 105 people were executed," many of whom belonged ing to minority groups." Guterres’s report had noted with deep concern the increase of executions for lesser crimes, including for drug-related offences, Nashif said.

"The death penalty continues to be imposed on the basis of charges not amounting to ‘most serious crimes’, and in ways incompatible with fair trials standards," she told the council. Nashif said that in March, 52 people sentenced to death on drug-related charges were transferred to Shiraz prison for execution. She also lamented the continued use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, in violation of international law.