The number of executions in Iran is on the increase with 18 hangings in the last week. Three men were executed for gay sex, whilst another was punished for murdering a woman who rejected his marriage proposal.

Amnesty International is concerned by the Iranian government s continuing clampdown on dissent, including arbitrary arrests and the torture or other ill-treatment of people who express views opposed to those of the government. Some of those arrested have even been executed, after apparently unfair trials, including at least one minor. Amnesty International wrote to the Head of the Judiciary to express concern about these developments on 13 May 2011, but without response; the Iranian authorities rarely reply to communications from Amnesty International.

Egypt and Tunisia have overthrown repressive regimes. Citizens in Syria, Yemen and other Middle East countries are demanding change. Yet in Iran, where a wave of 2009 demonstrations helped spark the movements we are now witnessing elsewhere in the Middle East, the populace is strangely silent.

From September 3 to 8, 2011, the inhuman clerical regime hanged 14 prisoners in Orumieh (3 people), Kerman (4 people), Ahwaz (6 people), and Qazvin (1 person). According to the Iranian regime's state media, in the first eight months of 2011 alone, 206 prisoners have been executed. At the same time, at least 228 people have been secretly executed.

March 16th, 2011 - According to the Human Rights House of Iran (RAHANA), Ayatollah Ahmad Mohseni Gorgani, the head of Iran's Supreme Court announced, "Moving forward, death sentences upheld by the criminal courts will be processed by the Supreme Court in less than 10 days."

Iran has executed an average of almost two people a day in the first six months of this year, human rights groups have warned. The sharp escalation in the use of capital punishment comes at a time when the Islamic regime is fighting to prevent pro-democracy movements similar to those that have been sweeping across the Middle East from taking hold in the country.