Amnesty International announced that since the beginning of 2025, more than 1,000 executions have been reported in Iran and called for their immediate halt. The international human rights organization reported that executions in Iran are carried out after unfair trials and with the aim of suppressing protests and minorities.
Hussein Baoumi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday, October 16, “UN Member states must confront the Iranian authorities’ shocking execution spree with the urgency it demands.”
He added that since the start of the 2022 protests, officials of Iran’s regime have used the death penalty “to instill fear among the population, crush dissent and punish marginalized communities.”
According to the Amnesty official, “This year executions have reached a scale not seen in Iran since 1989.”
Baoumi stated that many of these executions are related to drug offenses and “Executions are being carried out following grossly unfair trials held behind closed doors, amid widespread patterns of torture and forced ‘confessions’.”
In response, political prisoners in various prisons have protested the widespread wave of executions through sit-ins, issuing statements, and participating in the “No to Execution” campaigns.
Reports indicate that hundreds of inmates in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj continue to protest the sharp increase in executions, with a group of prisoners still on a collective hunger strike.
The disciplinary committee of Evin Prison canceled the next three visitation sessions for at least four political prisoners protesting against executions on Wednesday, October 15.
In a statement the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) announced the number of executions carried out over the past year as follows:
“Over the past year (from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025), the religious fascism ruling Iran has recorded a bloody and unprecedented record of cruelty and crime. During this period, the execution of 1,654 prisoners was documented across 31 provinces, representing a 2.3-fold increase compared to the same period the previous year (with 851 executions), and a 2.8-fold increase compared to the year before that (with 693 executions).”
These figures were compiled based on verification networks and independent sources due to the judiciary’s secrecy.
Call for immediate halt and abolition of death penalty laws
Amnesty International called on UN member states to seriously urge Iranian regime officials at upcoming UN General Assembly sessions, including the interactive dialogue of the Third Committee on Human Rights regarding Iran on October 30, to immediately halt all executions, overturn verdicts issued after unfair trials, and declare an official moratorium as a step toward the total abolition of the death penalty.
The organization also urged the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Narcotics Control Board to pressure Tehran to reform its anti-narcotics policies to ensure they comply with human rights standards.
Amnesty International further called on world governments to use universal jurisdiction to open criminal investigations into torture and other international crimes in Iran and to issue arrest warrants for officials with criminal responsibility in these cases.
Minorities face the greatest danger
Amnesty International’s new statement notes that thousands of people in Iran are at risk of execution, including those convicted of drug-related crimes and individuals tried in political cases under vague charges such as “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth” (efsad fel-arz).
According to the organization, Revolutionary Courts, which lack independence, issue death sentences in collaboration with security and intelligence agencies, with ethnic and religious minorities—including Afghans, Ahvaz Arab people, Baluchs, and Kurds—being the main victims of this practice.
Amnesty International emphasized that the death penalty is a violation of the fundamental right to life under all circumstances, describing it as “the ultimate cruelty and an inhuman and degrading punishment.”
