As part of the ongoing wave of executions in Iran’s prisons, six more prisoners were hanged in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.
According to the human rights agency HRANA, on Wednesday, April 30, the execution sentences of Abdolghaffar Barahouei, Parviz Dastkaleh, and Abdolsamad Gorgij were carried out in this prison. Three additional prisoners were also hanged on the same day, two of whom have been identified as Mehdi Azizi from Mashhad and Javid Gallehbacheh.
All of these individuals had previously been sentenced to death by Iran’s Revolutionary Courts on drug-related charges. The identity of the sixth executed prisoner has not yet been confirmed.
As of the time of this report’s publication, none of the official bodies or responsible authorities have commented on the executions.
With these executions, the total number of documented executions in Iran over the past four months has reached at least 345.
In its latest report on Iran published on April 28, Amnesty International stated that the death penalty was applied widely, arbitrarily, and unfairly in Iran over the past year, with hundreds executed for crimes such as drug trafficking, which do not qualify as “most serious crimes” under international standards.
Amnesty International Annual Report Warns About Systematic Human Rights Violations in Iran
The organization reported that the Iranian regime has used capital punishment as a political tool to suppress protesters, dissidents, and ethnic minorities such as the Baluch and Afghan nationals, who have been disproportionately represented among those executed.
