Executions numbers hit 8-year high in 2023 Iran According to the report, released on Tuesday by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), suggests that the 43 percent spike in the use of capital punishment last year came in reaction to nationwide protests prompted by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022 Iran hanged at least 834 people including women in 2023, the second-highest number of executions in two decades, according to a report released by rights groups. The report also notes that members of ethnic minorities, notably the Sunni Baluch from the southeast of Iran, were “grossly overrepresented amongst those executed”. At least 167 members of the Baluch minority were put to death, accounting for 20 percent of the total last year. The minority accounts for about 5 percent of Iran’s population. IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam described the figures as a “staggering total”. “Instilling societal fear is the regime’s only way to hold on to power, and the death penalty is its most important instrument,” he said.