Iran | At Least 100 Protesters Facing Execution, Death Penalty Charges or Sentences; At Least 476 Protesters Killed

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 27, 2022: At least 476 people including 64 children and 34 women, have been killed by security forces in the current nationwide protests. The death toll increase relates to recently verified cases from the first two months of the protests.

Furthermore, at least 100 protesters are currently at risk of execution, death penalty charges or sentences. This is a minimum as most families are under pressure to stay quiet, the real number is believed to be much higher.

Welcoming parliamentarians volunteering as political sponsors, Iran Human Rights reiterates the need to increase the political cost of executions for the Islamic Republic.

Director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam said: “Despite more than 100 days passing since the start of the nationwide protests, hundreds being killed, thousands arrested and protesters being executed, the people’s uprising for real change and achieving fundamental rights continues. The challenge facing people is the price they have to pay to achieve this goal. More widespread participation inside and outside the country and the international community supporting this uprising, can help lower the cost.”

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least 476 people including 64 children have been killed by security forces in the nationwide protests so far. Of the 64 children, nine were girls. They were all under 18 years of age, but have not all been verified through document evidence. Iran Human Rights is working to obtain confirmation of their ages.

The aforementioned numbers only relate to protests on the streets. Protesters Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard who were executed and those that have died under suspicious circumstances (include alleged suicides) shortly after release are not included in these statistics.

Death Toll by Province

Protesters have been killed in 25 provinces, with the most reported in Sistan and Baluchistan, Western Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Tehran and Mazandaran respectively.

Deaths have been recorded in 25 provinces: Sistan and Baluchistan: 130 people; West Azerbaijan: 53 people; Kurdistan: 53 people; Tehran: 52 people; Mazandaran: 38 people; Gilan: 26 people; Kermanshah: 25 people; Alborz: 23 people; Isfahan: 14 people; Fars: 11 people; Khuzestan: 11 people; Khorasan-Razavi: 7 people; East Azerbaijan: 4 people; Zanjan: 3 people; Lorestan: 3 people; Markazi: 3 people; Qazvin: 3 people; Hamevdan: 3 people; Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad: 2 people; Ardabil: 2 people; Ilam: 2 people; Bushehr: 2 people; Hormozgan: 2 person; Semnan: 1 person; Golestan: 1 person.

Crucial to note: Iran Human Rights started researching and recording protester deaths from the outset of protests. In the course of research and as new information is obtained, the data will be adjusted accordingly. As such, it is reflected in the change in province numbers.

The most number of deaths were recorded on 21, 22 and 30 September (Baluchistan’s “Bloody Friday”). November 4 was the bloodiest day in November with 21 recorded deaths.

Numbers are a “minimum”

The death toll is an absolute minimum. Reports of protester killings in the last few days are still being investigated. Iran Human Rights has received a high volume of reports of deaths which it continues to investigate with security considerations and internet disruptions. The actual number of people killed therefore, is certainly higher.

The Islamic Republic is intentionally creating confusion in protester cases by sharing contradicting statements, particularly in death penalty cases. This is further perpetuated by the fact that security defendants do not have access to their own lawyers per the Note to Article 48 of the CCP and their family contact is restricted. Many lawyers have reported being prevented from accessing their clients and their cases at all stages of the legal proceedings.

PROTESTERS AT RISK OF EXECUTION, DEATH PENALTY CHARGES OR SENTENCES

This list includes both officially reported cases and those reported by family members and citizen journalists. Iran Human Rights has been unable to confirm the details of all individual cases and therefore requests that anyone with information about protesters at risk of death penalty charges or sentences contact us on mail@iranhr.net or 0061478494849 on Signal, WhatsApp or Telegram.

It is important to note that all defendants in the following cases have been deprived of the right to access their own lawyer, due process and fair trials. In cases where they have managed to make contact or details of their cases reported by cellmates and human rights defenders, all have been subjected to physical and mental torture to force false self-incriminating confessions. In many cases, their forced confessions were aired prior to the commencement of any legal proceedings, violating their right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. There is ambiguity in many cases due to the Islamic Republic’s lack of transparency.

👉 Download PDF version here

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, December 27, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog