Iran executions could top 1,000 in 2015: UN

UNITED NATIONS // Executions in Iran have been rising at “an exponential rate” since 2005 and could top 1,000 this year as the country cracks down on drug offenders, according to a UN investigator.

Iran executes more individuals per capita than any other country in the world, Ahmed Shaheed said in a report to the General Assembly on Tuesday.

He said the majority of executions violate international laws that ban the use of capital punishment for non-violent offenses and for juveniles. He urged Tehran to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in those cases, and for all but the “most serious crimes” where it can be shown there was an intention to kill that resulted in the loss of life.

Mr Shaheed, the special investigator on the human rights situation in Iran, said the “shocking 753 executions” carried out by Iran in 2014 – the highest number ever – will be topped this year.

In the first seven months of 2015, at least 694 people were reportedly executed by hanging, he said, and a number of human rights organisations have report that well over 800 individuals have been executed in the last 10 months.

“There are dozens more waiting a similar fate on death row,” he added.

Mr Shaheed called the rate of executions “alarming” and said Iran is “possibly on track to exceed 1,000 by the end of the year”.

He said 69 per cent of the executions during the first six months of 2015 were reportedly for drug-related offenses, reflecting the increasing influx of drugs and rising drug abuse in the country.

While Mr Shaheed said the overall human rights situation in Iran remains “dire,” he said his latest report is “marginally more optimistic than my previous reports”.

He said he met with Iranian judicial, human rights, foreign affairs and narcotic officials in Geneva on September 15-16 to discuss the gravity of the drug problem and the government’s response. He called the government’s engagement with him “more substantive” but stressed that none of the UN special investigators on rights issues have visited Iran since 2005.

He said the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers reached in July and the lifting of economic sanctions that is expected to follow “can potentially have a beneficial multiplier effect on the human rights situation in the country, especially on the enjoyment of economic and social rights”.

Mr Shaheed urged continuing support for president Hassan Rouhani’s government to strengthen protections for fundamental rights and improve laws but he said reforms require support from all branches of the government and state.

* Associated Press