Hundreds executed in Iran in 2008 – Amnesty

Iran Focus: London, Mar. 24 – Iran executed at least 346 people in 2008, a prominent international human rights organisation said on Tuesday.

Iran Focus

London, Mar. 24 – Iran executed at least 346 people in 2008, a prominent international human rights organisation said on Tuesday.

"Some of the cruel and inhumane methods used to execute at least 346 people in 2008 included stoning and hanging", Amnesty International said in its yearly statistics, ‘Death Sentences and Executions in 2008’.

The figure was higher than the 317 number of executions Amnesty said Iran had carried out in 2007.

Only China, with a much larger population, executed more people than Iran, the report said.

Amnesty said that Iranian authorities executed at least eight juvenile offenders in 2008 "in flagrant violation of international law", adding that Iran was the only country in the world in which juvenile offenders were known to have been executed in 2008.

The group said it was concerned about proposals by the authorities in Iran to widen further the already wide scope of application of the death penalty.

In July 2008 Amnesty International and nine other human rights organisations issued a joint public statement calling for an end to the execution of juvenile offenders in Iran.

The group routinely states that the true number of people executed in Iran is believed to be higher than that reported.