Iran steps up executions

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31 – Authorities in southern Iran hanged a man, state media reported on Saturday.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31 – Authorities in southern Iran hanged a man, state media reported on Saturday.

The man, identified only by his first name Heshmat, was hanged last week in a prison in Kazeroon, the official state daily "Iran" wrote.

He was accused of murder.

Iran hanged six men in a prison in the north-eastern city of Bojnourd on Sunday, the official news agency IRNA news reported.

Authorities hanged at least 22 people in the space of 48 hours on 20-21 January.

Four men, aged between 18 and 20, were hanged in the north-eastern city of Mashhad on Tuesday, the state-run daily Khorrasan wrote.

Two men, identified only as Ahmad A. and Reza A., were hanged in the central city of Isfahan, the government-operated news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.

At least 48 people have been executed in Iran over the past two weeks.

Iran's judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi confirmed on 13 January that two men had been stoned to death for adultery in Mashhad in December while a third man managed to struggle out of the hole he had been buried in.