The Iranian regime executed five prisoners in Kerman prison and two prisoners in Chabahar prison on April 21. At the same time, two other prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj. These nine prisoners had been sentenced to death separately on charges related to drug trafficking.
Seven prisoners were sentenced to death for drug-related charges and were transferred to solitary confinement on April 19 for execution.
They met with their families for the last time on April 20 in Kerman and Chabahar prisons and were executed on Sunday morning.
In another case, the Iranian regime executed two prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj.
The identities of these two prisoners are stated as Alireza Shahbaz, 38, from Tehran, and Ali Jafar Taheri from Delphan.
These two prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement for execution on April 20. They were sentenced to death for drug-related charges.
In the past 10 days, an alarming wave of executions has begun in Iran, and it seems that the Iranian regime has increased the execution of prisoners under the shadow of news related to its war with Israel and the world community’s distraction from the executions.
According to reports from human rights sources, between April 11 and 19, at least 19 prisoners were executed in Urmia, Karaj, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Hamedan, Isfahan, and Zanjan prisons.
Amnesty International reported on April 4 in an investigative report entitled “Don’t Let Them Kill Us” that 853 people were executed in Iran in 2023, calling it unprecedented in the past eight years.
According to this report, 481 executions, more than half of the total registered executions, were related to drug crimes.
This figure represents an 89% increase compared to 2022, when 255 people were executed for drug-related crimes, and a 264% increase compared to 2021, when 132 people were executed for these crimes.
