Tag: executions

Iran
executions

Iran executes five convicted in January protests

Amnesty International stated that Iran’s execution of five individuals in one week was based on unfair trials, and called on the international community to respond. Iranian authorities brought charges including armed rebellion (baghi), waging war against God (moharebeh), and corruption on earth (efsad-e fel arz)—all in connection with this year’s anti-government protests. Several other convicted protesters still await the death penalty. Amnesty reported that Iran accounted for 64% of recorded executions worldwide in 2024, based on its annual global review. Executions increased in 2025, reaching a record 2,159. (Photo: ICHRI)

North Africa
libya

Protest wave of executions in Libya

Human Rights Watch reported that at least 31 people have been executed in Libya after unjust military trials overseen by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) since late August. The LAAF, led by Gen. Khalifa Haftar, has been the de facto power in eastern Libya since 2014, taking on many governmental roles. The non-state armed group has sought to rival the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli. Most of those executed appear to have been charged with offenses related to armed resistance against the LAAF. These are seemingly the first executions in Libya since Qaddafi was overthrown. At least 50 more people in the LAAF’s Gernada military prison have been sentenced to death and are “at imminent risk of execution.” (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Iran

Iranian officials named for crimes against humanity

Iran protestsAmnesty International named 87 Iranian security and Interior Ministry officials who it says should face criminal investigation for crimes against humanity committed during the 2022 crackdown on the Woman Life Freedom protests, and urged the UN Security Council to refer Iran's situation to the International Criminal Court. The 1,161-page report, titled "Architects of Atrocities," documents 377 fatalities among protesters and bystanders between September and December 2022, of whom 56 were children, along with widespread torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary imprisonment. (Photo: Taymaz Valley, Ottawa, via Wikimedia Commons)

Iran

Iran execution wave violates international law

executionsHuman Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran issued a joint report charging that Iranian authorities are unlawfully executing protesters and political dissidents on a weekly basis. In a "relentless attack on the right to life," Iranian authorities have arbitrarily executed at least 59 men on politically motivated and vague "national security charges" following grossly unfair trials within the last five months. Those executed included at least 32 in connection with protests, including this January's mass protests and the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests. Several of the executed were teenagers, aged 18 or 19, with many others in their early 20s. Five were hanged in public squares using truck-mounted cranes to instill fear and deter further public dissent, a practice that human rights organizations denounce as a violation of international laws prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. (Photo: ICHRI)

Europe

EU migrant ‘return hub’ plans risk rights abuses

LampedusaAmnesty International warned that plans by five European Union member-state governments for migrant “return hubs” in Rwanda and Uganda risk creating “cruel black holes for human rights.” The warning comes as the EU Return Regulation, approved by the European Parliament in June but still awaiting final approval by the European Council, is set to provide the legal basis for such hubs. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)

North Africa

Algeria: dissident poet may face execution

Mohamed TadjaditUN rights experts urged the Court of Algiers to stop the trial of Mohamed Tadjadit, noting that the reclassified charges the prominent activist now faces are punishable by death. A poet and human rights defender, Tadjadit is associated with the Hirak movement, which first arose in 2019 in opposition to then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and has since evolved into a wider call for political change and greater freedoms. The charges concern Tadjadit's participation in the #ManichRadhi (I am not satisfied) campaign, which mobilized social media users to express discontent with the government. Between 2019 and 2024, he had been imprisoned multiple times for participating in peaceful protests and exercising his right to freedom of expression. The UN experts stated that the new charges now being brought appear to be based on the same conduct underlying the earlier offenses, raising concerns that the "reclassification" contravenes the prohibition on double jeopardy. They stated that the Court of Algiers must halt the trial now scheduled to open, and drop all new charges that could expose Tadjadit to the death penalty. (Photo: Amnesty International)

Iran

Escalating repression across Middle East

SyriaUN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that repression of freedom of expression across the Middle East has deepened significantly since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran commenced at the end of February. In Iran, approximately 2,345 people have been arrested on charges related to national security. Many of these, as well as more arbitrarily arrested during the January protests, are being held in harsh conditions and incommunicado detention. The state has also cut internet access to prevent external sharing of information. Three protestors were publicly hanged in March after being convicted of "waging war against God" based on "confessions" obtained under torture. Many more are at imminent risk of execution. But hundreds of arbitrary arrests for online anti-war dissent have also taken place in the Gulf states that Iran has been targeting with missile strikes, with Türk warning of a "sharp securitization of civic space across the region." (Image: Pixabay)

Palestine

Discriminatory Israel death penalty bill denounced

PalestineThe International Centre of Justice for Palestinians joined with other Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups to denounce Israel's new death penalty bill, saying it represents "an extreme escalation in Israel's genocidal policies against Palestinians." The bill, which imposes a mandatory death penalty on West Bank Palestinians for vaguely defined "terrorism" offenses, was passed by the Knesset above international protests. (Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist)

North Africa

Algeria: retrial for Kabylia activists facing execution

KabyleAmnesty International pressed for Algerian authorities to ensure that the retrial of 94 people in the violent events of August 2021 in the Kabylie region complies with international human rights safeguards, emphasizing opposition to use of the death penalty and warning against any form of torture. The defendants are charged in the lynching of a man wrongly accused of starting devastating wildfires that ravaged Algeria in 2021. However, Amnesty found that the convictions against several of the accused appear to have been politically motivated, as they were affiliated with the Movement for the Self-determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated as a terrorist organization by authorities. The retrial was ordered by the Supreme Court, which found the convictions had been tainted by irregularities, including evidence coerced through torture. At least 38 defendants may face death sentences. (Map: Kabyle.com)

Planet Watch

UN condemns ‘alarming’ global increase in executions

executionsThe UN Human Rights Office raised concern over a "sharp hike" in the number of executions globally in 2025. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said his office "monitored an alarming increase in the use of the capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting the 'most serious crimes' threshold required under international law, the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions." The increase primarily came from executions for drug-related offenses in a small number of retentionist states. These are countries that continue to retain capital punishment, as opposed to the growing number of abolitionist states. which do not employ the death penalty. (Photo: ICHRI)

Iran

Iran: mass repression under internet blackout

#Internet4IranAs angry protests spread across Iran, has shut down internet and telecommunications access across the country. Under the cloak of internet darkness, there is reason to believe a general massacre of demonstrators is underway, with reports emerging of hospitals overwhelmed with casualties. Some estimates have placed the death toll at nearly 600. The Iranian government has only intensified its rhetoric. Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei promised no leniency for protesters, whom he characterized as "enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Image: Hajar Morad via Twitter)

Palestine

UN rights chief urges Israel to drop death penalty bill

PalestineUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the Israeli government to abandon proposed legislation that would mandate death sentences exclusively for Palestinians in specific cases—for crimes committed both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Türk stated that the legislation is "inconsistent with Israel's obligations'" under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. He also raised concerns over the "introduction of mandatory death sentences, which leave no discretion to the courts, and violate the right to life." The rights chief asserted that Israel has frequently violated the fair trial protections enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention for Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza, adding that this "amounts to a war crime." (Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist)