Iran has executed more than 127 people since October 7 Including Women and Children

 

The Iranian regime has executed more than 127 people, including women and children, since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, human rights groups said on Saturday, according to The Guardian.

Data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Norway-based organization Hengaw, which have been cross-referenced by the Observer, there has been an alarming rise in executions since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.

A third group, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), confirmed that there has been a significant increase in executions since the October 7 attacks, stating that on Wednesday last week, the regime executed seven people within a 24-hour period.

Human rights activists and the families of those put to death have accused the regime of using the world’s preoccupation with the war in Gaza as a cover to exact revenge on dissidents and put people to death without due judicial process.

Those who have been put to death in the last two months include a child, 17-year-old Hamidreza Azari, whose death was labeled “deplorable” by the UN last week, according to The Guardian.

Iran has also executed 22-year-old Milad Zohrevand, the eighth protester linked to the Women, Life, Freedom movement to face the death penalty for participating in the nationwide anti-regime protests that erupted across Iran last year following the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died while in police custody after allegedly being arrested for breaching Iran’s strict dress code.

In October, the UN condemned the Iranian regime for carrying out executions at an “alarming rate”. It said, according to its data, at least 419 people were put to death between January and July this year, which constitutes a 30% increase compared with the same time period in 2022.

This past April, rights groups said that Iran hanged 75 percent more people in 2022 than the previous year.

There has long been a concern over the number of executions in Iran, which activists say disproportionately target members of the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, notably Kurds in the northwest, Arabs in the southwest and Baluch in the southeast.