Death Penalty News

Iranian Court Imposes Flogging Sentences on Musician and Production Team The criminal division of the Qom provincial court has handed down 74-lash sentences to Iranian performer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight production staff members, according to legal assessments released this week.  The sentencing concludes a case initiated after a December 2024 YouTube livestream, in which Ahmadi performed an “imaginary concert” at a historic caravanserai without wearing a mandatory head covering. Beyond the corporal punishment, the court has mandated a two-year ban on the defendants leaving the country and a two-year prohibition on all professional creative work.

Iranians in Tehran illicitly filmed scenes of their capital for Israeli Channel 12 news, an act that constitutes espionage in Iran and can warrant a death penalty. The clips, broadcast on Saturday, showed locals at high-end shopping malls that the videographers said are only financially accessible to those connected to the regime. “I filmed this video with great difficulty and fear, and I said I would send it to the Israeli Channel 12,” said a 44-year-old Iranian who sent footage for the report and went by the alias Ali, speaking in Persian. “I committed a dangerous act. If you just talk to Israelis, you become a spy and they will execute you.”

Iran’s new chastity and hijab law has drawn criticism from journalists and activists who warn it represents a new weapon in the state's arsenal against women which could authorize extreme punishments including the death penalty and flogging. The new Hijab and Chastity law, approved by parliament in September 2023 and finalized by the Guardian Council in September 2024, enforces compulsory hijab with harsher penalties, including hefty fines, longer prison sentences, and restrictions on employment and education.

A female student at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University stripped to her underwear on campus after university security personnel harassed her and tore her clothing for not wearing a headscarf. University officials later claimed she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Social media users now call her the "Science and Research Girl," after Tehran's Science and Research Campus, where the incident occurred. Known for its scenic mountainous location, this unit of the Islamic Azad University has become the focal point of a protest that sparked widespread attention online.

After the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent protests, Iranian universities have also faced heightened repression and intensified control. The government's new "Population Growth" initiative, coupled with mandatory hijab laws, has transformed universities into enforcers of these policies, placing additional pressure on female students. Under the policy, universities offer academic grades and incentives for observing mandatory hijab, marrying, or having children, effectively turning these institutions into vehicles for promoting the Islamic Republic’s ideological goals.

A jailed Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-government protests has had his sentence overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, his lawyer has said. Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of protests that had exploded across Iran. His lawyer, Amir Raesian, said the Supreme Court has now ordered a retrial, and that the judges decided that Salehi's previous prison sentence of six years and three months went against Iran's multiple-offences rules, and was in excess of the legal punishment.

At least seven people, including two women, were hanged in Iran on Saturday as the Islamic Republic has further intensified its use of capital punishment, a monitor said. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of the Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 26, 2024: Sources close to Reza Rasayi’s family have warned of the protester’s execution being carried out in the next few days. There has been a drastic rise in the number of executions in the past week, with at least 23 people executed in the last five days alone. Iran Human Rights calls for the death sentences against Reza Rasayi and other political prisoners to be overturned. It also urges the international community to adopt a firm and sustainable policy to stop the daily executions in Iran.

A group of high profile political prisoners in Iran have denounced the death sentence handed down to dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, calling it a sign of Iran's "inhuman nature and deep corruption." Earlier this week, an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced the outspoken artist to death for his songs supporting the nationwide protests of 2022, charges that his lawyer, Amir Raeisian, claims he had previously been acquitted of.

An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday . "Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said, quoted by the reformist Shargh newspaper.

Iran’s prisons have been “transformed into sites of mass killings”, with the number of executions hitting an eight-year high in 2023, according to a new report by Amnesty International. Some 853 people were executed last year – including five boys under 18 – nearly double the number of total executions in 2021, showing that the death penalty is being “weaponised” to suppress dissent, concludes the human rights advocacy group.

The punishment for not wearing a hijab is largely financial, although there are new systems to report women not complying with hijab rules to the morality police. Iranian women are refusing to comply with hijab rules in Iran, ABC News reported, as reporters recently conducted an investigation in Tehran. Not wearing a hijab is punishable by the Iranian morality police, who generally patrol the streets of Iran. 

The atrocities of the Iranian regime against Iran’s women have become so disgraceful that even the regime’s own media and analysts are becoming worried about their consequences. On January 13, the state-run Setareye Sobh Daily ran a piece titled, “Harsh punishments will cause discontent,” in which it warned about the social consequences of punishments such as flogging and wrote, “Flogging is a violent punishment and today, the society will not tolerate it.” On the same day, the state-run Etemad daily wrote, “[Such punishments] do more harm than good for the punished and society.”

All women in Iran have been required by law to cover their neck and head since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution Iranian authorities have whipped a woman 74 times for “violating public morals” and fined her for not covering her head, the judiciary said. “The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said late on Saturday.

Iran this week hanged a young woman convicted of murdering her husband, whom she married while still a child, defying international pressure for her to be pardoned. The Islamic regime in Iran is engaged in a war against its own people as it executes them for minor offenses or no offense at all. Since the beginning of the year, Iran executed at least 419 people – a major increase from the same period in 2022.

Controversy has erupted in Iran after hardliners demanded specifically designed gowns conforming to hijab rules to be made compulsory in hospitals and operating rooms. Twelve versions of Islamic surgical gowns have been designed for female patients in the operating room to comply with Sharia rules, announced Mohammad-Hossein Taheri-Akerdi, the secretary of a state body responsible for promotion of Islamic standards, whose main concern has always been promotion of hijab.

A former hijab watchdog official is being detained facing a possible death sentence for homosexuality after a video showed him having sex with another man. Reza Seqati, the former director-general of the culture ministry in Gilan province, is being held in detention, according to Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the Iranian judiciary. On Monday, the criminal court in Tehran issued the detention order after investigating and evaluating the case. In July, Seqati was dismissed from his official post after a video showing him engaging in sex with an unidentified man surfaced, potentially leading to the death penalty under Iranian law. Mizan referred to the video as the "indecent film in the Gilan case" and verified Seqati's involvement.

Iranian media say the governorate of the central city of Qom has issued a directive mandating female employees in government offices adhere to strict Islamic dress codes, specifically wearing a black chador, a large piece of cloth that is wrapped around the head and upper body leaving only the face exposed, and refraining from using makeup. The directive, initially disclosed by the Iran Watch rights group's website, marks a further tightening of the Islamic republic's stance on how women can dress in the workplace.

Khamenei’s regime stands as not only one of the world’s major violators of human rights but also as a leading state supporter of global terrorism. In the midst of the tragic scenes of violence and bloodshed unfolding in Gaza, a parallel and systematic effort is taking place in Iran, where the clerical dictatorship is orchestrating a series of large-scale executions. These state-sanctioned murders not only showcase the regime’s brutality but also highlight its willingness to use every opportunity to maintain its hold on power. Disturbingly, the regime’s Judiciary recently authorized the execution of 25 prisoners during the month of Shahrivar (August 23- September 22). As tensions escalated in Gaza during Mehr (September 23- October 22), the tally of executions surged to a distressing 81. As of Aban month (October 23- November 21), the count stands at a chilling 106.

Armita Geravand’s death comes after her being in a coma for weeks and threatens to reignite popular anger, protests over Iran’s mandatory headscarf law for women DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian teenage girl injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s Metro while not wearing a headscarf has died, state media reported Saturday. The death of Armita Geravand comes after her being in a coma for weeks in Tehran and after the one-year anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini which sparked nationwide protests at the time.