According to the UN, victims are often members of minorities and many face allegations such as “hostility towards God”.
The United Nations on Monday called on Iran to stop using the death penalty. At the same time, it referred to a significant increase in the number of executions – in the first half of the year, at least 612 people were executed in Iran, more than twice as many as in the same period last year. TASR informs according to AFP report.
According to the high Commissioner of the UN human rights Volker Türk, the number of executed persons in Iran shows the urgency of the immediate introduction of the moratorium to the death penalty in the country.
UN criticism
“It is alarming to see the reports that there are at least 48 people in the death cell – 12 of which are likely to be able to execute immediately,” Türk said.
Iran objected to the UN criticism, saying that executions in the country are carried out only for “the most serious crimes”.
The UN High Commissioner’s Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) claims that in this way, minorities are disproportionate in this way. More than 40 percent of the executed drugs were sentenced for drug -related offenses, his office said, while others were judged on the basis of “general and vague accusations”, such as “hostility to God” or corruption that the authorities often use to silence the dissent.
Repression after conflict
Several non-governmental organizations said that the Iranian authorities had arrested hundreds of people and dozens of others executed in a wave of repression after a 12-day war with Israel. Organizations have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to cover the weaknesses revealed by this conflict.
Iran carries out the death penalty for a number of serious crimes and, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International, the number of executions is the second state in the world after China.
Considerations in Iran are usually carried out by hanging at dawn, adds AFP.
