Volker Türk: Iranian authorities must immediately halt all executions

Volker Türk: Iranian authorities must immediately halt all executions

🔸Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern about the increase in executions and the issuing of death sentences in Iran.

🔸In a statement released on Wednesday, 14 Mordad, he asked Iranian authorities to “immediately halt all executions and take steps toward the full abolition of the death penalty.”

🔸The statement says that “since 19 March 2026, at least 56 people have been executed on charges related to national security, 27 of whom were in cases related to protests that began earlier this year. In addition, more than 100 other people are also at risk of execution due to similar charges.”

🔸Türk also expressed concern about the alarming increase in the number of executions in Iran related to drug offenses. Executions related to drug crimes account for the largest share of annual executions in Iran.

🔸In 2025, the Iran Human Rights organization recorded 795 executions related to drugs, representing a 58% increase compared with 503 cases in 2024. It also said that since the beginning of 2026, at least 136 people have been executed on charges related to drug crimes.

🔸In his statement today, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote: “I am also concerned that the death penalty continues to be used as a tool to create fear and terror among people and suppress dissent.”

🔸The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also called the continued lack of fair trial guarantees and compliance with legal procedures in Iran “deeply concerning.”

🔸Türk added: “It is said that some confessions are obtained from defendants under torture or other forms of ill-treatment.

🔸It has also been reported that several executions have been carried out in public. Some others have been carried out only a few weeks after arrest. According to reports, 12 defendants have been sentenced to execution after only a single three-hour closed-door session.”

🔸The senior UN official emphasized that “the death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and with human dignity. Such a punishment has no place in the world today.”

🔸In recent weeks, the Iranian government has begun a new wave of political executions, but after the political execution of two more people in Isfahan, reactions to it were much broader than before, using the hashtags “Don’t execute” and “No to execution.”