The last time there was a public execution in Iran was in 2020. Now a man is said to have been executed for killing a police officer in public in the south of the country. The state wants to intimidate citizens in this way, say activists.
According to a human rights organization, Iran has carried out a public execution for the first time in more than two years. "The resumption of this brutal punishment in public is intended to scare and intimidate people into not protesting," said Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, head of the organization. He condemned public executions as "medieval" and called on the international community to take resolute action against the death penalty.
The public execution of a man convicted of killing a police officer was carried out in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran, according to IHR. The death sentence was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Images circulating online, allegedly of the execution, showed a man in prison garb hanging several meters from the ground by a rope attached to a crane.
Death sentences in Iran are usually carried out in prisons. According to activists, public executions serve as a deterrent, particularly when the accused are accused of killing a member of the security forces.
According to Iran Human Rights, the last time a convict was publicly executed in Iran was in June 2020. Four other men who were sentenced to death for killing police officers are currently facing the same fate. According to the NGO, the number of executions in Iran has doubled in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year.
