In November alone Iran executed at least 260 people, the highest monthly total in more than two decades, while officially announcing only two, the United States Department of State said in a Persian-language post on X on Tuesday.
“This year, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Iran, many without fair trial or due process,” the post said. “The Islamic Republic uses the death penalty to instill fear and silence every dissenting voice.”
The same account earlier denounced what it called the suspicious death of Iranian human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, saying his case highlights the severe risks faced by those defending basic freedoms in the Islamic theocracy.
Alikordi, a 46-year-old prominent lawyer for jailed protesters and a former political prisoner, was found dead under unclear circumstances on Friday night, prompting some attorneys and activists to suggest possible Islamic Republic involvement.
“The world cannot turn a blind eye,” the post said. “The United States stands with the people of Iran and will continue to condemn these horrific violations.”
Iranian authorities executed at least 24 people across the country on Saturday and Sunday, underscoring what monitors describe as a rapid escalation in the use of capital punishment, human rights groups reported.
The figures indicate an average of 12 executions per day — roughly one every two hours.
The executions took place in prisons in different cities across Iran, reports from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said. Iranian state media acknowledged only one case.