Execution of Three Prisoners in Rasht and Shiraz by Islamic Republic Judicial Authorities

A human rights source reported that the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic executed at least three prisoners in the central prisons of Shiraz and Rasht. According to the Iran Human Rights Organization on Wednesday, November 30, a prisoner identified as Amirullah Dehghan, 39 years old, who was sentenced to 'two counts of retribution' for 'premeditated murder', was executed this morning in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. This human rights entity also reported that two prisoners named Mehdi Gilani from Rasht and Mohammad Hossein Nadri from Lahijan, who were sentenced to death in connection with drug-related charges, were executed by judicial authorities in Lakan Prison in Rasht. The executions were not announced in state media, and judicial authorities have not commented on them so far. The continuation of executions by the Islamic Republic in Iran comes at a time when opposition to the death penalty has always faced criticism and protests from citizens. A public hunger strike campaign in protest against executions in Iran, which has been ongoing for months under the title 'Tuesdays No to Execution', announced on Tuesday, November 29, that in the past week the Islamic Republic executed 28 people, and on the sixteenth of Aban alone, 18 people were executed by judicial authorities in various prisons across Iran. A human rights group previously stated that the Islamic Republic executed 166 people in October, from the 10th of Mehr to the 10th of Aban of the current solar year. According to Amnesty International, the Islamic Republic is responsible for 74% of the world's executions in 2023. Previously, May Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, criticized the human rights situation and the increasing number of executions in the Islamic Republic's prisons, calling for a reduction in death sentences in Iran.