Execution of Five Prisoners in Iran for Drug-Related Charges

A human rights organization reported that the judiciary of the Islamic Republic executed four prisoners on drug-related charges in Urmia on Thursday morning, May 20. Additionally, one person was executed on Tuesday in Tabriz prison in connection with drug offenses. According to the report by HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, the identities of these prisoners were announced as "Hasan Choupani, Taher Abdolali Pour, Hasan Arabi (Anbi), and Abdollah Hassan Zadeh." The report states that these four prisoners, who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges, were transferred to solitary confinement in Urmia Central Prison on Tuesday, May 18, for the execution of their sentences. HRANA also reported on Thursday that a prisoner named "Hasan Moharrer," whose case was also related to drugs and was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court, was executed on Tuesday morning, May 18, in Tabriz prison. According to annual statistics from the Statistical Center, Publishing, and Works of the Human Rights Activists in Iran for the year 1402, at least 767 citizens, including 21 women and 2 child offenders, were executed. Of this number, 7 executions were carried out in public. Additionally, during this period, 172 others were sentenced to death, with 5 sentenced to public execution. It is noteworthy that during this period, the preliminary sentences of 49 others were also confirmed by the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the Iran Human Rights Organization reported that three prisoners were executed in Kerman province in southeastern Iran. The human rights organization had reported a week earlier that in two weeks, from April 17 to May 1, 63 prisoners were executed in various prisons in Iran. Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, director of the Iran Human Rights Organization, emphasized that during these two weeks, "the Islamic Republic executed one person every five hours without incurring any costs." According to this human rights organization, the Islamic Republic executed 71 people in April, from April 2 to May 1. Of this number, 44 were sentenced for drug-related charges, 26 for murder, and one for rape. The organization also reported that from January 1, 2023, until May 1, 171 people were executed in Iranian prisons. Steve Cohen and Tom McClintock, Republican lawmakers and co-chairs of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, condemned the increase in executions in Iran as a "direct order from Ali Khamenei" in a statement released on Monday, May 17. They stated that the alarming escalation of state violence by the Islamic Republic reflects the government's blatant disregard for human life and international human rights norms. These two Republican lawmakers believe that the Iranian government's aim in executing "at least 37 people in the last 10 days" is to instill fear among the Iranian people and suppress any dissent. They specifically pointed out the executions carried out in Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Gonbad Kavous, Tabriz, and Arak, considering this trend of the Islamic Republic not only reprehensible but indicative of the systematic efforts of the government to suppress any form of dissent or criticism.