Iran: Iran is carrying out executions at "terrible speed" in state-sanctioned mass killings that are a "disgusting attack" on the right to life, according to two rights groups on Wednesday.

As of the end of June this year, 251 executions have been confirmed, though the true number could be much higher, according to a joint statement issued by the Washington-based Abdor Rahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran and London-based Amnesty International.

The groups accused the government of going on a "performance spree", saying, "If executions continue at this appalling rate, they will soon surpass the total of 314 executions recorded for the entire year of 2021."

He claimed that 146 of those executed in 2022 were convicted of murder, "among well-documented patterns of executions being systematically executed after extremely unfair trials."

However, at least 86 others were executed for drug-related offences, for which domestic law changes have so far declined dramatically in recent years.

"On average, Iranian officials killed at least one person per day during the first six months of 2022." "The state machinery is carrying out mass murders across the country in a despicable attack on the right to life," said Diana Eltahawi, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the report, authorities routinely carry out mass executions in Iranian prisons, with more than a dozen people executed at once.

The organizations confirmed a report by another non-governmental organisation, Iran Human Rights, that Iran carried out its first public execution in two years on Saturday.

Acknowledging the problem of prison overcrowding, Iranian officials' comments raised concerns that "official efforts to reduce the number of prisoners have led to an increase in executions," according to the statement.

Rights groups were also concerned that more than a quarter of those killed so far in 2022 were members of Iran's Baluchi ethnic minority, which accounts for only 5% of the population.

"Iran's disproportionate use of the death penalty against the Baluchi minority is a symbol of the discrimination and repression they have faced for decades," said Roya Boroumand, director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights.

According to the statement, the increase in executions coincided with the election of former judiciary chief Ibrahim Raisi to the presidency and the appointment of former intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni AZE as the new judiciary chief.

According to activists, Iran is in the midst of a major crackdown as protests continue over living conditions in a dire economic crisis.
Labor activists, intellectuals and filmmakers have been arrested, including Mohamed Rasoulof, whose harsh film about the effects of the death penalty in Iran won the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Wednesday that Tehran granted bail to British-Iranian environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who has been charged with security crimes.

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