Human rights watchdogs claim that over the past ten days, Iran has executed one person every six hours.
Iran Human Rights (IHR) released a report on the 10 days during which 42 people were executed by Iranian authorities, with the Baluch ethnic minority making up just over half of the victims.
The announcement that Swedish-Iranian dual national Habib Farajollah Chaab had been killed on Saturday by Iranian authorities coincided with the news of the execution spree.
The Swedish foreign ministry condemned Chaab’s execution. He was alleged to have been behind an attack that killed dozens of people at a military parade in the southern province of Khuzistan in 2018, state media said.
The executions reported by IHR were mostly for alleged drug offences. While the widespread street anti-government street protests have died down across most of Iran they have continued every Friday in Sistan-Baluchistan, which is home to the Baluch minority.
At least 194 people have been executed in Iran so far this year, according to the group’s count. The number is a baseline minimum for Iran’s secretive death row. Only two of the 42 executions that they reported on Friday had been officially announced by authorities.
