The “frightening” number of executions carried out this year in
Iran prompted the UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday,
to call on the country’s authorities to abolish the death penalty
or halt all executions.
More than 10 people are put to death each week in Iran, High
Commissioner Türk said, making the country “one of the world’s
highest executors”, with at least 209 people executed since the
beginning of the year according to sources quoted by the UN
rights office (OHCHR), in a press release.
Incompatible with international norms
Executions are carried out “mostly” for drug-related offences.
Mr. Türk said this was “incompatible with international human
rights norms and standards”.
OHCHR said that minorities were over-represented on Iran’s death
row, and said that according to sources, at least 45 people,
including 22 from the Baluch minority, were executed in the last
14 days alone.
“Most were executed for drug-related charges”, added the UN
rights chief.
‘Abominable record’
“At this rate, Iran is worryingly on the same track as last
year, when around 580 people were reportedly executed,
said Mr. Türk. “This is an abominable record, particularly when
you consider the growing consensus for universal abolition of the
death penalty.”
Only a small number of States still impose and apply the death
penalty, said OHCHR.
On Saturday, Iran executed Habib Chaab, a Swedish-Iranian citizen
from the Ahwazi Arab minority, the rights office added, who had
been charged and found guilty of “corruption on earth” – a
capital offence under Iran’s strict interpretation of Islamic
law.
Reports on Monday, said that Yousef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli
Zare had been executed for crimes including blasphemy, said
OHCHR.
Speaking before the Human Rights
Council last month, Mr. Türk had called the death
penalty an “atavistic relic from the
past that should be shed in the 21st century”.Yeah
