UN Experts Alarmed At Spike In Iran Executions

Human rights experts say there appears to have been a steadily increasing rate of hangings in Iran since the summer of 2013.

United Nations human rights experts have expressed alarm at the ongoing spike of executions in Iran, which recently included the hanging of a former child bride amid questionable circumstances.

Farzaneh Moradi, who was reportedly forced into marriage at the age of 15, was hanged earlier this month for murdering her husband.

She was executed despite retracting her initial confession to the crime.

Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, said Moradi's case again demonstrates the need for "an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in the Islamic republic."

At least 176 people have reportedly been hanged in Iran in 2014 alone, as part of what UN human rights experts say appears to be a steadily increasing rate since the summer of 2013.