Iran appears to be using executions “as a tool of state intimidation,” the United Nations said Monday, as it denounced a jump in capital punishment globally in 2025.

The Islamic Republic reportedly executed 1,500 people last year, UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

“The scale and pace of executions suggest a systematic use of capital punishment as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and migrants,” he warned.

The spike in executions in Iran — which, according to rights groups, is the world’s most prolific executioner after China — had contributed to “an alarming increase” in the use of capital punishment worldwide last year, Turk said.

While the overall global trend continues to move toward universal abolition of the death penalty, executions surged in Iran and a handful of other states, such as Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Many of those executions were “for offenses not meeting the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold required under international law,” Turk said, also criticizing “the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions.”

The sharp hike had especially been driven by a growing number of executions for drug-related offenses not involving intentional killing.

“This is not only incompatible with international law, but also ineffective in deterring crime,” Turk insisted.

In the case of Iran, at least 47 percent of executions in 2025 were related to drug offenses, the rights office........

© The Times of Israel