Shafaq News – Tehran

Iranian authorities have executed at least 1,000 people so far in 2025, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), a Norway-based watchdog, reported on Tuesday.

The group documented 64 executions in the past week alone — averaging more than nine per day — and warned that the actual number is likely higher due to censorship and “lack of transparency.”

“In recent months, the Islamic Republic has launched a mass killing campaign in Iran’s prisons,” declared IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, describing the executions as “arbitrary” and “without due process.” He argued that the scale amounts to “crimes against humanity,” insisting that any international dialogue with Tehran must address the crisis.

Iran remains one of the world’s leading executioners, with Amnesty International recording at least 853 executions in 2023 — the country’s highest in nearly a decade — many tied to drug charges. Rights groups argue authorities wield the death penalty as a tool of political and social control rather than justice.

Activists continue to spotlight emblematic cases, including Kurdish Iranian prisoner Verisheh Moradi, now facing execution for alleged “armed rebellion” (baghī). Her conviction, according to rights monitors, was based on coerced confessions and a flawed trial — part of a broader pattern in recent death penalty cases.

IHRNGO stressed that most executions involve non-lethal offenses, in violation of international standards that restrict capital punishment to the “most serious crimes.” The group also denounced Iran’s Revolutionary Courts, which have issued death sentences since the 1979 Revolution, arguing they lack independence and frequently rely on torture-induced confessions — practices international legal bodies classify as potential crimes against humanity when systematic.