June 17, 2022
Iran has for decades ranked second in the world after China for executions, according to Amnesty International.
It said Iran executed at least 314 people last year—and probably more.
It said China executed “thousands” but was unable to produce a hard number because China rarely announces executions.
However, Iran probably executed more people as a proportion of its population than any other country. Given that China has a population 16 times that of Iran, it would have to have executed more than 5,000 people for it to be executing more people as a proportion of its population than Iran.
Iran’s execution total of 314 last year is a 28 percent spike from the 246 hangings reported in 2020 and the highest total since 2017, after which Iran removed many minor drug offenses from its list of crimes for which hanging is imposed.
But Amnesty International said drug offenses accounted for 132 or 42 percent of last year’s hangings, up startlingly from just 23 hangings in 2020.
Amnesty International said Iran executed three people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes, although international law bars the execution of anyone under the age of 18 at the time of the criminal offense.
Amnesty International said that in Iran “death sentences were disproportionately used against members of ethnic minorities for vague charges such as ‘enmity against God’.” It noted that 19 percent of those executed in Iran last year were Baluchis, although they make up no more than 5 percent of the population.
Amnesty International found nine countries executing 10 or more people last year. They were: China, thousands; Iran 314; Egypt 83; Saudi Arabia, 65; Syria, 24; Somalia, 21; Iraq, 17; Yemen, 14; and US, 11. Eight of the US executions were in five states (Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri) and the other three were by the federal government in the closing weeks of the Trump Administration, before the Biden Administration announced a moratorium stopping all federal executions.
