Iran executed on Wednesday three convicted of drug trafficking already four sentenced for rapeat a time when the UN and several NGOs are concerned about the increase in the application of the death penalty in the country.
On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turkdenounced the “terribly” high number of executed in the country so far this year, an average of more than 10 per week.
The information agency of the judicial authority, Mizan Online reported this Wednesday that “this morning the death sentence of three members of the Panjak gangthe main cocaine distribution cartel in the country”.
Mizan reported that six members of the gang were arrested in 2014. “At the time of the arrest, seized one kilogram of cocaine, opium and methamphetamine that the members of this gang had,” added the judiciary.
The three men were hanged at Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj, near Tehran, Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in a statement. The Norway-based organization further reported that four other men convicted of rape were executed in Rajai Shahr prison. “The government’s death machine is accelerating”said IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam.
These hangings raise 64 total executions in Iranin the last 12 days, alerted IHR.
On Monday, two men were executed by hanging in Iran for having burned a Koran and insulted the Prophet Muhammad. So far this year, at least 209 people have been executed in Iran, the majority for drug-related crimes, according to a balance sheet published Tuesday by the UN. In its report, the UN pointed out that the total figure could be higher and Türk described the balance as “abominable”.
Iran executes more people a year than any other country except China, according to human rights groups including Amnesty International.
This week the NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), based in New York, denounced that the Islamic Republic “continues its wave of assassinations.” At least 582 people were executed in the Islamic Republic in 2022a record since 2015, compared to 333 in 2021, said IHR and the French NGO Ensemble contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) in a report in April.
