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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Iran | Executions in Khorramabad, Karaj

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2024: Saeed Imani, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed Khorramabad Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison on 30 April. His identity has been established as 35-year-old Saeed Imani from Khorramabad who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Saeed Imani was arrested for the murder of his brother-in-law around five years ago and sentenced to qisas.”

At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.

Two executed in Karaj


Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2024: Farzad Geravand and Reza Barati who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges in the same case, were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 30 April. Their identities have been established as Farzad Geravand and Reza Barati, two Kouhdasht natives and co-defendants sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, May 1, 2024

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

— Oscar Wilde



Location: Iran
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