July 29, 2022
The regime carried out its first public execution in two years on July 23 in Shiraz, hanging Iman Sabzikar for murdering a police officer in February, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group announced. The Judiciary used to carry out frequent public executions as a deterrent to crime, but the number of such public hangings has been reduced dramatically in the last three years, probably primarily because of the covid epidemic. The regime hanged 13 people publicly in 2018 and 13 again in 2019, but only one in 2020, none in 2021 and one so far in 2022.