In October, a UN human rights expert warned that
almost all executions in Iran were "an arbitrary deprivation of life" and urged the country to end the imposition of the death penalty where it is in violation of international law.
Under Iran's penal code, people can be executed for crimes that are not considered among "the most serious" under international law, such as drug trafficking.
The UN expert said vague charges, such as "enmity against God" and "corruption on Earth", were meanwhile used to sentence individuals to death for participation in protests, for other forms of dissent or where there was a lack of evidence for the accusations.
Judges trying capital and other cases also relied heavily on forced confessions extracted through torture and other forms of duress to prove guilt, he added.