Iran’s increasing executions: one every two hours in one day

The number of executions in Iran reached a record high this week as on Wednesday alone 12 people were hanged in various Iranian cities on charges ranging from armed rubbery to rape, human rights bodies have reported.

Centre for a Democratic Iran: The number of executions in Iran reached a record high this week as on Wednesday alone 12 people were hanged in various Iranian cities on charges ranging from armed rubbery to rape, human rights bodies have reported.

In total 20 people were hanged in Iran during last week as the increasing number of executions has become a subject of fierce contention between Iranian justice ministry officials and the UN’s special body that monitor’s Iran’s continuous human rights abuses.

The public executions in the meantime have been condemned by a senior dissident Iranian religious leader, ayatollah Sanei, by issuing an edict that warns about the profound adverse psychological and cultural affects that they can have on the public.

However, Iran’s Chief Judge ayatollah Larijani has defended the public executions, watched by women and children, as “a preventive measure to deter criminals and teach them a lesson to think twice before they commit an offence”.