About a week after the execution of eight people in Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj, aka Gohardasht Prison, 10 other prisoners were executed in the same jail on June 29.

According to human rights groups, at least 97 prisoners have been hanged in Iranian prisons during the past 40 days. 

Earlier in the month, human rights groups said the Islamic Republic hanged 12 Baluchis, including one woman, in Zahedan prison in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

In a communiqué released on Tuesday, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) reiterated their shared profound concern over “the continued human rights violations and abuses in Iran,” including arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as Iran’s increased use of capital punishment. 

A few days earlier, UN Secretary General António Guterres released a report on the situation of human rights in Iran, decrying “the high number of death penalty sentences and executions” and “reports of death in prison due to denial of adequate and timely medical care.” The UN chief said that the number of executions in Iran increased from at least 260 cases in 2020 to 310 individuals in 2021, and the number continued to rise into 2022.

Earlier in the month, Amnesty International’s annual report on worldwide use of the death penalty showed Iran as a country with a “disturbing spike” in executions.

The 66-page report found Iran executed at least 314 people in 2021, a 28 percent jump from at least 246 in 2020 and the highest figure since 2017. Amnesty said that in Iran “death sentences were disproportionately used against members of ethnic minorities.”