• A report reveals Iran's execution of over 500 people so far in 2022, the most in five years

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    A report reveals Iran's execution of over 500 people so far in 2022, the most in five years
    As per Norway-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 504 people have been executed in Iran this year...

    Digital Desk: A rights group reported Monday that more than 500 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2022, amid months of high tension over the killing of Mahsa Amin for allegedly breaching the Islamic country's strict dress code for females. 

    According to the Norway-based nonprofit group Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 504 people have been executed in Iran this year, and the group is currently trying to authenticate the further cases of persons who have been hanged. 

    The development comes during the country's anti-regime protests, which erupted in September. Official media reported that four of the 504 persons were executed on Sunday on suspicion of cooperating with Israel's intelligence service.

    "These individuals were condemned to death behind the closed doors of the Revolutionary Court without due process or a fair trial," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement. According to the statement, "their punishments lacked all legal validity."

    He went on to say that the murders were carried out to instil "societal terror and redirect public attention" away from the country's "intelligence shortcomings." 

    Another recently dangled person was a lady, who was executed Saturday in Dastgerd, central Iran, on charges of murdering her father-in-law, as stated by the IHR. 

    As shown in the AFP report, the rights group raised alarm over the number of women killed in Iran, frequently on charges of murdering partners or relatives in violent situations. 

    According to the IHR, the number of persons executed this year is already the most in the last five years. According to estimates from the rights group, at least 333 people will be killed in 2021, a 25% increase from 267 in 2020.

    Meanwhile, Amnesty International said that 314 people were slaughtered in the country last year, the most of any country in the world. It did, however, state that such data is not available for China, where, according to the AFP article, annual executions number in the hundreds. 

    In response to the recent protests in Iran, the IHR stated that 26 people, including three juveniles, are currently facing charges that could lead to their execution.

    The IHR report on the number of executions came just after Iran abolished its "morality police." The decision was taken in response to tremendous public outrage across the country. The ISNA news agency quoted Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri as saying, "Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished."