Iran hangs 711 in 2024 as calls grow to halt executions

At least 711 people have been executed in Iran since January, prompting female political prisoners at Evin prison in Tehran to call on authorities to stop issuing death sentences.

Norway-based Iranian rights group Hengaw on Saturday said 13 of the 711 executions the group has documented this year were political prisoners. The group also documented 21 fatalities in Iran’s prisons in 2024, including four deaths of political detainees and eight deaths attributed to torture.

“What we are experiencing is a tsunami of executions; it’s shocking and horrifying,” women’s rights activist Mina Khani from Hengaw told Iran International English on Saturday.

Khani expressed concern that, if executions continue at this rate, Iran’s death toll could approach 1,000 by year’s end.

“People at the height of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement could never have imagined that, in the shadow of a regional war partly driven by the Islamic Republic, there would be such killings,” Khani said.

Female prisoners urge end to death sentences

Death sentences continue to provoke resistance from political prisoners and activists. On Saturday, a group of female detainees in Tehran’s Evin Prison issued a letter calling on the public to prevent the Islamic Republic from “sacrificing lives in its vendetta against freedom and equality movements.”

Last week, Iran’s judiciary issued death sentences for six protestors accused of allegedly killing a government Basij militia member during the 2022 protests—a conviction that rights groups, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), have condemned for due process violations, torture-induced confessions, and insufficient evidence.

Rights groups say there are currently 42 political prisoners at risk of execution across Iran's prisons.

Student jailed for opposing dissident rapper's death sentence

In a further sign of Iran’s crackdown on dissent, student activist Khashayar Sefidi was transferred to Evin Prison on Saturday to serve a one-year sentence. Sefidi, who had opposed the death sentence of dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, was charged with “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” In a video before his transfer on Saturday he said, "I felt it was my duty, as a member of the community and a citizen, to protest against Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence and not remain silent in the face of this injustice."

Salehi, detained in September 2021 for releasing his protest song “Mouse Hole,” was arrested again in October 2022 during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Although his death sentence was overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court in June, Salehi remains imprisoned.

Sefidi’s case reflects a broader pattern of repression, as Iran’s judiciary continues to punish those protesting against executions. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was recently given an additional six-month prison sentence after she protested the execution of another political prisoner in Evin's women’s ward, according to the Free Narges Coalition. The group reported that Mohammadi, already serving a lengthy sentence, was charged on October 19 with “disobeying and resisting orders” after her August protest.

Iran hangs 12 in one day amid rise in drug-related executions

Iran’s execution spree intensified on Wednesday as at least ten individuals, including a woman, an Afghan national, and two Kurdish citizens, were hanged at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on drug and murder charges, Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported. The executions took place amid protests by family members and opponents outside the prison, which were met with a crackdown by security forces.

IHR warned that drug-related executions have surged in recent years, with 2023 alone showing an 84 percent increase compared to 2022, rising from 256 to 471 cases.

According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out 853 executions in 2023, marking the highest number in eight years. Amnesty International noted that 64 percent of the executions in 2023 were for crimes that did not warrant the death penalty under international law, including drug-related offences, robbery, and espionage​.

Globally, a total of 1,153 executions were recorded last year, with Iran responsible for 74% of these and Saudi Arabia for 15%, according to rights group Amnesty International.