Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 19, 2023: State media have reported the public execution of an unnamed man in a beach park in Bandar-e-Deylam in Khuzestan province.
This is the second public execution in 2023. Repeating its warning about the resumption of public executions, Iran Human Rights urges the international community for urgent action to stop these state crimes.
Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The international community must not tolerate such medieval punishments in 2023. Governments with diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, particularly those in negotiations, must not turn a blind eye to these crimes.”
According to Fars news agency, a man was publicly hanged in a park beach in Bandar-e-Deylam, Khuzestan province, on 18 June. The unnamed man was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of two policemen on 29 March 2022.
Another unidentified man was publicly hanged for charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) in Maragheh on 25 May, less than a month ago.
2021 was the first year in over a decade during which no public executions were carried out by the Islamic Republic. This followed 2020 when only one execution was recorded, which was the lowest number since 2016, when Iran Human Rights started its systematic monitoring of executions in Iran. There is no indication that the decline in the number of public executions were the result of policy change, but rather a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. In 2022, public executions returned to the streets of Iran with two people publicly executed. At least five other men have been sentenced to public executions, including Afghan nationals Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Ghotali.
According to Iran Human Rights reports, at least 341 people have been executed in 2023 in Iran.