Iran Conducts First Public Execution of 2024 as Hunger Strikes Continue

Latest Developments

Iran conducted its first public execution of the year on August 26, hanging Amirreza Ajam Akrami, a man in his early 20s, for killing a lawyer. His death comes as weekly hunger strikes in 18 Iranian prisons in protest of the regime’s surge of executions entered their 31st week. On August 27, 68 human rights groups released a joint statement calling on Tehran to abolish the death penalty, noting that the executions seek not to secure justice but to intimidate the Iranian population. “The Islamic Republic uses the death penalty as a tool of political repression and death sentences are issued after unfair trials without the minimal standards of due process,” the statement said. Iran has executed at least 395 people in 2024 to date, according to the Oslo-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Expert Analysis

“The Islamic Republic’s latest public execution marks a fresh escalation of its domestic repression. The absence of significant international pressure on the regime effectively gives Tehran a green light to continue accordingly.” — Tzvi Kahn, FDD Research Fellow and Senior Editor

“The Islamic Republic’s recourse to public executions as a means of showcasing its brutality underscores the regime’s profound fear of the resilience of Iranians toward its oppressive authority. In particular, Iran’s Generation Z and younger millennials have ardently voiced their yearning for the regime’s downfall and the rejection of its Islamist ideology through multiple waves of widespread national uprisings.” — Janatan Sayeh, FDD Research Analyst

Public Executions

The public execution marks the return of a death penalty that the Islamic Republic has employed to varying degrees in recent years. According to IHR, between 2011 and 2015, the regime publicly executed 50 to 60 people annually. However, “the number of public executions decreased to 33 in 2016, 31 in 2017 and then 13 in 2018 and 2019. Public executions dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with one execution reported in 2020 and none in 2021. In 2022, two people were publicly hanged. The number more than tripled in 2023, with seven public executions.” While it remains unclear if the latest public execution prefigures a new long-term renewal of the penalty, the regime’s broader surge of closed executions in recent weeks reflects a fresh attempt to deter dissent as Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, takes office.

Hunger Strikes

On January 30, 2024, 10 Iranian political prisoners in Karaj’s Ghezelhesar Prison launched weekly hunger strikes to protest the regime’s executions. Inmates at 17 other prisons in Iran have joined the strikes in the months since then. In March, a group of prisoners in five Iranian jails issued a statement saying that they seek to draw attention to the reality that the “death penalty is state murder, is an irreversible punishment and a tool of repression and intimidation of the despotic minority government ruling the country.” The statement added that they seek nothing less than a new government in Tehran. “We are confident that the day is not far when the Iranian people will achieve democratic power to determine their own destiny and no citizen will be subject to oppression and injustice because of their opinion,” they said.

Related Analysis

“Wave of Executions Continues in Iran,” FDD Flash Brief

“Iran Executes 36 Convicts in 24 Hours,” FDD Flash Brief

“Iran Executes Protestor for Alleged Role in 2022 Uprising,” FDD Flash Brief