Iranian Human Rights Organization: At least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018

According to the annual death penalty report by the Iranian Human Rights Organization, at least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018.

The 11th annual report on the death penalty was published by the Iranian Human Rights Organization on Tuesday, March 27, according to which executions in Iran decreased by 48 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. However, 273 people were still executed in Iran this year.

The report states that the most important factor in the decrease in executions is the implementation of new amendments to the Islamic Republic's anti-narcotics law, although in the last three months of 2018, at least 24 people were hanged for drug crimes. The number of drug-related executions in 2017 was reported to be at least 230.

Also, of this number, only 93 cases, or a total of 34 percent of these executions, were announced through official sources of the Islamic Republic, and 66 percent of these executions were not reported by the Iranian government in 2018.

But public executions remain prevalent in Iran, with 13 reported executions in 2018.

There are also at least six child defendants among those executed this year. At least five women were executed in Iran in 2018.

For years, the lack of transparency regarding the implementation of the death penalty has caused human rights concerns in Iran, with human rights experts and the United States repeatedly protesting the widespread human rights violations in Iran.

Earlier, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Republic's revolution, the US Secretary of State had referred to the worsening economic and human rights situation in Iran over the past forty years in a Twitter message.

Source: Voice of America