New Wave of State Murders in Iran, Daily Brief, 21 August, 2024

There’s been a massive wave of executions in Iran recently – in short, a killing spree.

We’ve highlighted the issue before in the Daily Brief, but the latest numbers of pre-meditated murders by the state are just jaw-dropping.

In the month following presidential elections in June, authorities killed 87 people, according to the nongovernmental group Iran Human Rights. Not long after, the state murdered 29 people in mass executions in just one day, August 7.

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities are hailing the recent elections as proof of genuine change. From state murders to more state murders: where’s the change exactly?

Those killed by the authorities included people sentenced for “premeditated murder” – that is, what the authorities themselves are doing – as well as other violent crimes and drug-related charges. There are always questions about convictions in Iranian courts, however, given serious due process violations and unfair trials.

And then there are those executed for things that shouldn’t even be illegal at all, like taking part in peaceful demonstrations. People have fundamental rights to free expression and peaceful assembly, but in Iran, the authorities murder people for exercising these rights.

The death penalty is an attack on human dignity, is uniquely cruel in its finality, and is inevitably marked by discrimination, arbitrariness, and error. This is true whether we’re talking about Iran – which was responsible for 74 percent of all recorded executions worldwide last year – or any other country where it’s used, like the US, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Belarus.

No government should be committing pre-meditated murder against its citizens. No government should have that power.

And if the intention of Iranian authorities is to use the death penalty to intimidate people into silence, it doesn’t seem to be working. Resistance continues, even inside prisons.

Prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin prison have been taking part in protests against the death penalty for months. They held further demonstrations on August 6, after the execution of Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei in another prison. He was a Kurdish man arrested during the 2022 nationwide “Women, Life, Freedom” protests.

Prison guards responded by assaulting the protesting women, injuring many, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.

The murderous brutality of Iran’s authorities goes on, but it is not breaking the human spirit. People in Iran bravely keep insisting on human decency.