KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed 310 individuals, including 25 Afghan nationals, across the country in the past two months, according to an Iranian human rights organization.
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), an organization monitoring human rights abuses in Iran, reported that 144 individuals, including 12 Afghan nationals, were executed in the country in November 2024.
According to the organization, the Islamic Republic carried out 166 executions, including 13 Afghan nationals, in October, marking the highest monthly execution rate in the country since 2007.
Details about the Afghan nationals executed and the charges against them have not been disclosed. However, Afghan prisoners in Iranian prisons have previously been sentenced to death on charges related to drugs and murder.
The rights group has highlighted an escalating use of the death penalty by Iranian authorities in recent months, noting that it is happening amid ongoing conflicts and the international community’s attention on the Middle Eastern crisis.
“By executing at least 310 people in two months, the Islamic Republic has begun the most extensive wave of executions in Iranian prisons in the last two decades,” said IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, urging the international community to intervene and press Iranian authorities to immediately halt all executions.
Iranian authorities have not yet confirmed the reported figure. However, Iran is one of the countries with the highest rates of capital punishment in the world, having executed hundreds of people, including foreign nationals, women, and juvenile offenders, over the past decades.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have condemned these executions as politically motivated, arguing that the death penalty violates the right to life as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Taliban authorities have not yet commented on the execution of Afghan nationals in Iran. Previously, the regime’s Ministry of Justice requested that Iran’s judiciary transfer Afghan citizens sentenced to death.
Recently, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Justice, Askar Jalalian, announced that more than 8,000 foreign nationals are imprisoned in Iran, the majority of whom are from Afghanistan. He stated that the crimes leading to the imprisonment of Afghans include drug trafficking, smuggling prohibited goods, theft, and murder, with drug trafficking being the most common offense.
