Iranian authorities have intensified their use of executions, reportedly increasing the number of prisoners sent to the gallows daily. On Sunday, December 15, 11 prisoners, including a woman, were executed in the cities of Yazd and Zahedan.
The executed individuals include:
- Mohammad Ali Kharkouhi and Reza Kharkouhi (brothers)
- Abdolbaset Toutazeh, Ne’matollah Toutazeh, and Abdolnaser Toutazeh
- Salah Rahimi
- A female prisoner in Yazd (name not disclosed)
- Mohammad Vazir Roudini, Alireza Golbacheh, Elyas Tardast (22 years old), and Yaqoub Barahouyi, executed in Zahedan.
Additionally, on Saturday, December 14, two prisoners—Sheikh Hassan Ebrahimi in Malayer and Hossein Kolivand in Arak—were also hanged.
The surge in executions continued on Thursday, December 12, when six prisoners were executed:
- Gholamali Roustaei, Kheirallah Amiri, and Farzad Khorrami in Shiraz
- Abdolkarim Shoukati Teymouri, Mohammadshah Achakzehi (22 years old), and Rahim Achakzehi (24 years old) in Mashhad
- Majid Esmaeili in Isfahan
Reports indicate that 13 additional prisoners were executed earlier on Wednesday, December 11, bringing the total for the week to an alarming number.
Call for International Action
Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM) has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council and international organizations to intervene and halt the ongoing wave of executions in Iran. The organization described the silence and inaction of the international community in the face of these unprecedented executions as “shameful.”
Discrimination Against Ethnic Minorities
Many of the executed prisoners belong to Iran’s Baluch ethnic minority, who are disproportionately targeted under accusations related to drug trafficking. However, Iranian citizens and activists have raised concerns that the regime’s own Revolutionary Guards and security forces are the major drug traffickers in Iran and the wider region, particularly in Syria.
Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty, especially against ethnic minorities, has drawn widespread condemnation from human rights organizations, which see these executions as tools of political oppression.
