A report by United Kingdom based Iran International claims over 300 people have been executed in Iran within the first seven months of 2024.

• Among those sentenced to death in a court of law include ethnic minorities, who only made up 20% of all those executed despite ethnic minorities making up 49% of the population.

• Additionally, five people were convicted of being Israeli spies, and another five were for offenses related to Kurdish-Sunni nationalism.

• 172 people—including ten women—were executed for drug offenses, a high crime in the Islamic State

By the numbers: Anti-Iranian groups claim that this figure constitutes a trend of “increasing executions” in the country, with 2023 seeing a 43% jump from the previous year.

• 834 people were executed in 2023

• 582 people were executed in 2022

• Only 15% of executions in 2023 were officially announced by Iran’s judiciary.

What they’re saying: Overseas human rights organizations have sounded the alarm over the targeting of so-called “activists” from minority communities, who often serve as a vector for foreign meddling by Israeli and Western intelligence agencies.

• “We are particularly worried about the new wave of executions of Kurdish civil activists and drug death row prisoners in the coming weeks and months,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization, which seeks to ban the death penalty in Iran.

The big picture: Reports of Iran’s domestic affairs come amid heightened tensions in the region as the world awaits an Iranian military response to the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader and ceasefire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran

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