Iran doubles executions in 2024 with at least 612 people killed, reports the UN

Iran has more than doubled the number of state executions it has carried out this year compared to the data in the first half of 2024, the United Nations confirmed on Monday.

The United Nations Human Rights Office said that at least 612 people had been executed this year only a figure more than double the 297 people who were killed in the same period last year.

The minority groups continue to constitute a disproportionate number of those who are killed by Tehran, confirmed the UN

Portraits of young Iranians that the Iranian regime killed saw during the rally in Paris, France, May 13, 2025. (Siavosh Hosseini / Sopa Images / Lightrocket via Getty Images)

Iran increases state executions in the midst of nuclear talks with us

“It is alarming to see the reports which indicate that there are at least 48 people currently in the death corridor – of which 12 are considered an imminent risk of execution,” said the UN Volker Türk Human Rights on Monday.

The news of the radically increased number of state executions comes one day after Tehran killed Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani on Sunday, both involved in the opposition movement known as the popular organization of Mojahedin of Iran (MEK).

Maryam Rajavi, elected president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a dissident group based in Paris led by the Mek, taken at X To condemn the killings and say: “We do not – in any circumstance, do not be able to be cut this blood and criminal regime.

According to Amnesty International, “(both) were arbitrarily executed in the middle of the horrible crisis in the execution of Iran.”

“Their executions highlight the use by the authorities of the death penalty as a tool of repression in time of national crisis to crush dissent and spread fear,” added the group.

More than 40% of people executed this year were convicted of drug -related offenses, while the UN also found that many were not only tried behind closed doors, but received waves like “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth” – which are apparently used by the regime of “dissipated silence”.

“The information received by my office also indicates that legal proceedings in a certain number of cases, often held behind closed doors, have still not respected the guarantees of procedural and fair trial,” Türk said in a press release.

Iran executes more than 1,000 prisoners in 2024, the highest total in 30 years, indicates the report

The number of state executions has been considerably intensified since President Massoud Pezeshkian took office in July 2024, with at least 975 people killed In 2024, the highest rate since 2015.

The United Nations organization has also warned that Iran sought to extend its use of the death penalty and examines a new spy bill which will redefine what it considers “collaboration with hostile states”.

Acts, including online communication and collaboration with foreign media, will question their “ideological alignment” and will be liable to death.

The changes come when Israel called for a regime change in Tehran and repeatedly stressed that recent strikes were an attack on the government, not the Iranian people.

A woman poses flowers for victims of executions in Iran during the rally in Paris, France, May 13, 2025. (Siavosh Hosseini / Sopa Images / Lightrocket via Getty Images)

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

“This bill dangerously expands the extent of the capital punishment for espionage, and I call that it is canceled,” said Türk. “The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity.

“Instead of accelerating the executions, I exhort Iran to join the world movement by removing capital punishment, starting with a moratorium on all executions,” he added.