Hundreds of MPs have signed a petition urging the British government to pressure Iran into ending its use of the death penalty.
The cross-bench movement, carrying more than 250 signatures, including former government ministers, comes amid reports that Iran’s use of the death penalty has spiked in the months following the election of new president Masoud Pezeshkian in July.
He campaigned on promises to moderate Iran’s conservative outlook and reset ties with the West, though analysts remained sceptical about his influence while the country remains under the tight control of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At least 93 individuals were executed in August, twice as many as the 45 killed in July, according to United Nations experts, taking the total for the year to more than 400. In 2023, Iran was responsible for 853 executions, amounting to 74 per cent of all recorded executions worldwide that year.
Half of the executions in August were over drugs charges. Many more are believed to have been political.
That includes Reza Rasaei, a Kurdish man arrested during the nationwide 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s brutal morality police.
Tehran said he was guilty of killing a senior military officer but human rights groups, including Amnesty, allege that his confession was coerced.
They say his execution is proof that Iran is killing political dissenters. He was the tenth protester of that movement to be executed.
“Executions in Iran are political in nature, as the ruling theocracy uses the death penalty to instill fear and terror to prevent future popular uprisings,” said a statement signed by the more than 250 MPs.
“The international community’s failure to address these atrocities has fostered a culture of impunity in Iran emboldening the regime to intensify state repression and crackdown.”
Co-president of the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF), Prof. Lord Alton of Liverpool, urged the government to hold Tehran accountable for these human rights abuses.
“The time to act is now to prevent further atrocities and support the Iranian people’s fight for justice and freedom,” he wrote. “We urge the UK Government to prioritise human rights, justice, and accountability in its 2025 Iran policy.
“The UK must lead an international coalition to end this alarming trend by referring [Iran] to the UN Security Council, facilitating the prosecution of its leaders in an international tribunal or under existing mechanisms.”
