The 9th annual report by Iran Human Rights and ECPM
31 March 2017
Download the report here: Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2016-ECPM-IHR The 9th annual report by Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty provides an assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in 2016 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The report sets out the number of executions in 2016, the trend compared to previous years, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions. Lists of the women and juvenile offenders executed in 2016 are also included in tables at the end of the report. Drug-related executions, the status of the cooperation between the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Iran in fighting drugs and the ongoing debate inside Iran, and the new legislation proposed by the Iranian Parliament, Majles, will be briefly reviewed. We will also look into whether Hassan Rouhani’s presidential period, which will end in June 2017, has had any impact on the issue of the death penalty. The issue of due process will be discussed. Revolutionary Courts have received much attention as regards the mass executions in the 1980s. In this report, we will provide data which, in particular, sheds light on the role of the Revolutionary Courts in recent executions. The report also looks into the abolitionist movement inside Iran. As in last year’s report, we provide the number of “forgiveness” cases, where the family of murder victims chose forgiveness instead of retribution, and compare those to the trends for death sentences in murder cases. Like our previous reports, the 2016 report is the result of hard work from IHR members and supporters who took part in reporting, documenting, collecting, analyzing and writing its content. We are especially grateful to IHR sources inside Iran who, by reporting on unannounced and secret executions, incur a significant risk. Due to the lack of transparency and the obvious risks and limitations that human rights defenders face in the Islamic Republic of Iran, this report does not give a complete picture of the use of the death penalty in Iran by any means. There are reported execution cases which aren’t included in this report due to a lack of sufficient details or an inability to confirm cases through two different sources. However, we believe that this report gives the most complete and realistic figures possible under the present circumstances.