NO ONE IS SPARED the Widespread Use of the Death Penalty in Iran
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NO ONE IS SPARED The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran October 2020 / N° 758a October Cover picture : Balal, who killed Iranian youth Abdolah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007, is brought to the gallows during his execution ceremony in Noor, Mazandaran Province, on 15 April 2014. The mother of Abdolah Hosseinzadeh spared the life of her son’s convicted murderer, with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution prior to removing the noose around his neck. © ARASH KHAMOOSHI / ISNA / AFP Table of Contents Executive summary ...............................................................................................................................4 Acronyms ...............................................................................................................................................7 Methodology ..........................................................................................................................................8 The world’s second top executioner .....................................................................................................9 Barbaric methods of execution ........................................................................................................................... 9 Capital crimes inconsistent with international law ..............................................................................11 Sex-related offenses ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Religious offenses ................................................................................................................................................... 11 Political offenses ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 Moharebeh .................................................................................................................................................... 13 “Spreading corruption on Earth” .............................................................................................................. 14 Insurrection ................................................................................................................................................... 15 Drinking alcoholic beverages ................................................................................................................................ 15 Theft ............................................................................................................................................................................ 16 Robbery ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16 False accusation of fornication or sodomy ...................................................................................................... 17 Assassination attempt on Iranian and foreign leaders ................................................................................. 17 Inciting the armed forces....................................................................................................................................... 17 Audio-visual offenses and cyber crimes ........................................................................................................... 18 Drug-related offenses ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Economic offenses ................................................................................................................................................. 20 Other capital offenses ............................................................................................................................................ 21 BOX: COVID-19 and the death penalty ............................................................................................................... 21 Death penalty for children .....................................................................................................................22 LGBT face death penalty over sex-related offenses ............................................................................27 Use of the death penalty against women .............................................................................................28 Ethnic communities and religious minorities targeted by executions ................................................30 Kurds ........................................................................................................................................................................... 30 Baloch ......................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Arabs ........................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Baha’is ......................................................................................................................................................................... 34 BOX: Extrajudicial killings of Baha’is ................................................................................................................... 34 Death penalty against anti-government protesters .............................................................................35 Lack of fair trial and due process guarantees in capital cases ...........................................................38 Inadequate legal representation in death penalty cases .............................................................................. 41 Lawyers persecuted and prosecuted ................................................................................................................. 41 Death penalty critics face harsh repression .........................................................................................43 Domestic legal framework ....................................................................................................................45 Proof of commission of capital crimes ............................................................................................................. 45 International legal framework ...............................................................................................................47 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ...................................................................................... 47 Convention on the Rights of the Child ............................................................................................................... 48 Universal Periodic Review ..................................................................................................................................... 49 UN General Assembly resolutions ...................................................................................................................... 49 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................51 Appendix: Table of capital crimes in Iran .............................................................................................52 FIDH - NO ONE IS SPARED - The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran 3 Executive summary For many years, Iran has consistently ranked second on the list of the world’s top executioners, after China. Until 2017, Iran also ranked first in per capita executions. At least 251 people were executed in 2019 and more than 190 in the first nine months of 2020. Various international human rights monitoring mechanisms have regularly criticized numerous aspects related to the application of the death penalty in Iran for being blatantly inconsistent with fundamental provisions of international law. The overwhelming majority of capital crimes in Iran fails to meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” and, as a result, is in contravention with the country’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Capital offenses that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold include, but are not limited to: sex-related offenses; religious offenses; political offenses; drinking alcoholic beverages; drug-related offenses; economic offenses; and cyber crimes. For several decades, Iran has also been the world’s top executioner of children. From 2009 to September 2020, at least 67 executions of juvenile offenders were reported. Iran imposes the death penalty against minors and executes them when they turn 18 or, occasionally, before. The use of the death penalty against minors is in breach of the country’s obligations under the ICCPR and the Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC), both of which expressly prohibit the imposition of capital punishment on individuals who were under the age of 18 when they allegedly committed the crime. Women are subject to capital punishment as a result of the discriminatory nature of several laws that directly concern them. For example, married women involved in extramarital relations can be charged with adultery, which is punishable by stoning. But married and unmarried men can be charged with adultery