Responding to reports that the Iranian authorities this morning arbitrarily executed Reza Rasaei, a 34-year-old member of the oppressed Kurdish and Yaresan ethnic and religious minorities, in connection to the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising of September-December 2022, without providing prior notice to him, his family or his lawyer, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“While global and domestic media attention have been focused on regional tensions with Israel, the Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent arbitrary execution in secret of a young man who was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention, including sexual violence, and then sentenced to death after a sham trial.

“This execution lays bare once again how Iran’s criminal justice system is rotten to the core and highlights the Iranian authorities resolve to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the population. It also dispels any illusions of human rights progress with a new president assuming power last week.

“The continuing arbitrary execution of protesters in the aftermath of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising illustrates yet again that without constitutional, legal and policy reforms, human rights violations and impunity will persist. It also underscores the need for states to initiate criminal investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction against all those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law, including top Iranian officials.”

Background

Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei was arbitrarily executed in secret at 5am local time on 6 August 2024 in Dizel Abad prison, Kermanshah province. According to information provided to Amnesty International by an informed source, the authorities did not give prior notice to Reza Rasaei, his family or lawyer. Within hours of informing his family of his execution, the authorities cruelly forced his family to bury his body in a remote area far from his home and in the presence of security forces. Reza Rasaei was sentenced to death on 7 October 2023 after a grossly unfair trial that relied on his forced “confessions” obtained under torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, suffocation and sexual violence. Reza Rasaei is the 10^th individual to be executed in relation to the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising. Several other individuals, including Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri, remain at grave risk of execution in connection with the uprising.

In the aftermath of the uprising, the Iranian authorities have intensified their use of the death penalty, with at least 853 executions recorded in 2023. In 2024, they have continued executing people at alarming rates, carrying out at least 274 executions as of 30 June 2024, according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The organization has long called on the Iranian authorities to establish a moratorium on executions with a view of abolishing the death penalty.