Iran: Execution of 864 Prisoners in 2023 by the Khamenei Regime to Suppress Uprisings
Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
NCRI logoThe highest execution rate in the past 8 years with a 34% increase compared to the previous year.
The machine of torture and execution, orchestrated by the Khamenei regime in 2023, showed no momentary pause in its brutality, according to reports from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside the country. The recorded number of executions in this year reached at least 864 prisoners, marking the highest figure in the past 8 years. However, considering the clandestine executions, the actual number is likely much higher.
The number of executions in 2023 was approximately 34% higher than in 2022 which reached 646 executions. The trend of executions continued to escalate throughout 2023, with more than 36% of the executions (313 cases) taking place in the last three months of the year, coinciding with regional conflicts.
Among the victims, the most oppressed and marginalized Baluch compatriots bore the brunt of the executions. Out of the executed, 191 individuals, or more than 22%, were Baluch. Notably, among the executed were 26 women and 8 juvenile offenders who were under 18 at the time of committing the crime. Seven executions were carried out in a shocking public manner.
The wave of executions persists into the new year. On January 1, 2024, five prisoners were executed in Karaj Central Prison. The regime’s judiciary chief in Alborz Province justified these executions by stating, “There is no leniency in dealing with those who endanger the people’s security.” The true intention of the oppressive mullahs is nothing but to preserve the ominous clerical regime against overthrow.
On January 4, two prisoners were hanged in Ardabil, and one in Hamedan, while three others were hanged in the days leading up to it in Ardabil Central Prison. On Tuesday, January 2, the government news agency IRNA reported the execution of nine prisoners in Ardabil.
Meanwhile, four political prisoners sentenced to death, belonging to the Sunni community in Qezelhesar Prison, entered the sixth day of their hunger strike in protest against the execution of their fellow inmate Davood Abdollahi. Previously, three of their fellow inmates, Davood Abdollahi, Ayub Karimi, and Ghasem Abesteh, had been hanged by the regime’s hangmen in the same prison.
Decades of appeasement and granting concessions to the ruling religious fascism have encouraged it to suppress and execute, torture internally, and engage in warmongering and terrorism outside Iran. The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the United Nations, relevant organizations, the European Union, and member states to take immediate action to stop the mullahs’ killing machine and save the lives of thousands of prisoners facing execution and once again calls for the visit of an international fact-finding delegation to Iran’s prisons. This regime must be expelled from the international community and its leaders, especially Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and Gholamhossein Ejei, must be brought to justice for four decades of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
January 5, 2024