PARIS - Iranian security forces have killed at least 537 people in a crackdown on protests that erupted last September, said a rights group on Tuesday, sharply revising upwards its previous toll.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) also said that while four people had been executed in this period on protest-related charges, over 300 more had been hanged on other accusations in the same time frame, in what it described as a broad tactic to “intimidate” society.
The protest movement began in mid-September after the death in custody of Ms Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Protesters took to the streets, urging not just an end to clothing obligations like the obligatory headscarf for women, but also the ousting of Iran’s Islamic theocracy, which has ruled the country since 1979.
The authorities responded with a crackdown which rights groups say saw protesters directly targeted with live ammunition across the country.
The new figure of 537 is due to new deaths being openly verified, said IHR, which previously counted just 488 killed in the crackdown.
The most deaths took place in late September 2022, with 223 killed. A total of 100 people lost their lives last October, while 173 died the following month, said the report, which marks 200 days since Ms Amini’s death.
At least 144 people have been executed in 2023. The Sistan-Baluchistan province in the country’s south-east has recorded the highest number of deaths – 134 – and is where the region’s Baluch Sunni minority has held weekly protests.
At least 69 deaths were recorded in Teheran, and 57 and 56 in the provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan, respectively, which are populated by the Kurdish minority.
The four who were executed in protest-related cases are what IHR described as “show trials” that prompted an international outcry.
But the group said that in the same period, 309 people were also put to death on other charges, including 180 for drug-related offences, without a murmur of dissent from the international community.
The group said this showed how capital punishment in Iran was used as a “tool to intimidate society”.
IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP: “These are the ‘low-cost’ victims of the regime’s execution machine.
“Nobody knows them, their executions don’t receive any condemnation – but the aim is the same; to spread fear and prevent more protests.”
On Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights Council denounced the rising numbers of executions in Iran, including those who received the capital punishment in connection with protests that have rocked the country.
The top UN rights body approved a resolution voicing “deep concern at the reported surge in the number of executions, including of individuals sentenced to death in relation to their alleged involvement in the recent protests”.
The resolution, which also extended the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in Iran for another year, passed with 23 of the council’s 47 members voting in favour.
Another 16 abstained, and eight opposed the text, including China, Cuba, Pakistan and Vietnam.
Iran’s Ambassador Ali Bahreini took the floor to slam the resolution as a “weaponisation of human rights as a foreign policy tool”.
The resolution echoed strong international condemnation over the country’s crackdown on the protest movement.
Rights groups have warned that executions on all kinds of charges are on the rise, arguing that this seeks to intimidate society into not protesting.
Tuesday’s resolution called on Teheran to “take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures” to ensure that no one is executed for “offences that do not meet the threshold of the most serious crimes”.
Iran must also ensure that no executions are carried out “for alleged offences committed before the age of 18 years” and that sentences are handed down only by “courts that are competent, independent and impartial”, it said.
Beyond executions, the council deplored “systematic discrimination and violence based on gender, ethnicity, religion or belief or political opinion” in Iran.
It urged the authorities to guarantee and uphold the right to freedom of expression and opinion, and to address “systematic impunity”.
The resolution also extended the mandate of special rapporteur Javaid Rehman, who in a report presented to the council in March warned that Iran had committed serious violations since Ms Amini’s death.
Some of the most serious abuses, including widespread murder, imprisonment, torture and sexual violence, could amount to crimes against humanity, he warned. AFP