There has been a 75% increase in the number of executions carried out in Iran last year, according to human rights activists.
Under the country's arch-conservative and repressive leadership, there have been around 75% more executions compared to the previous year, the Oslo-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and France's Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) reported.
According to the report, the country executed at least 582 detainees in 2022, compared to 333 in 2021. Nearly half of the death sentences were for murder and around another half for drug offenses, according to the report.
Those executed for the controversial charges of "waging war against God" and "corruption on Earth," according to their interpretation of religion, amounted to 3%.
"In order to instill fear among the population and young protesters, authorities have intensified the executions of prisoners sentenced for reasons other than political ones," added IHR Director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.
Death sentences in Iran are usually carried out by hanging.
According to the report, the increase indicates that the death penalty is being used as "intimidation" and "oppression" to deal with the country's social problems. Human rights activists also criticized the high proportion of ethnic minorities among those executed.
Amnesty International also recently accused the authorities in Iran once again of using the death penalty as an "instrument of repression" against ethnic minorities.
Human rights activists have criticized the use of the death penalty in Iran for years. There are no official figures on executions.
Iran also executed four participants in the recent wave of protests which were triggered by the death of the Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was arrested in mid-September by the morality police for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes and died a few days later in police custody.
Iran witnessed several death penalty sentences for people accused of joining mass protests across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in September last year while in police custody after she was detained in Tehran for violating the mandatory hijab norms.
Western countries subsequently imposed a slew of sanctions on Iranian officials and entities, accusing them of repression against protesters. Iranian officials, in turn, blamed the US and its European allies for "instigating rioters."