Executions Continue in Iranian Prisons; At Least 7 More Prisoners Executed in Karaj

The human rights organization "Hangaw" reported the execution of at least 7 prisoners in the Ghezel Hesar and Rajaei Shahr prisons in Karaj in the early hours of Wednesday, May 10. It is said that these individuals were previously sentenced to death for crimes related to "drug offenses" and "rape," and their sentences were carried out. According to Hangaw, "Hossein Panjak, Abdolhossein Emami Moghadam (from Kouhdasht), and Babak Aghaei" were sentenced to death for drug-related crimes. According to a statement from the "Iran Human Rights Organization," the charges against four of the executed prisoners in Rajaei Shahr prison were "rape," while the charges against three executed prisoners in Ghezel Hesar were related to "drugs." On Tuesday night, a number of family members and relatives of the prisoners whose death sentences were to be executed gathered in front of Ghezel Hesar prison. In recent weeks, a new wave of executions has been initiated in Iran, prompting protests from civil society organizations and international bodies. According to the "Human Rights Activists in Iran" organization, in the past eleven days (up to Tuesday), the death sentences of at least fifty-seven prisoners for charges related to drug offenses, corruption on earth, blasphemy, and murder have been carried out in various prisons across Iran. According to "Hengaw," during the eleven days leading up to today, the death sentences of at least fifty-seven prisoners, including two women, have been executed in Rajaei Shahr prison in Karaj, Urmia, Ghezel Hesar in Karaj, Dastgerd in Isfahan, Vakilabad in Mashhad, Ardabil, Torbat Jam, Yazd, Rasht, Birjand, Qazvin, Nishapur, Minab, Bandar Abbas, Zahedan, Khorramabad, Iranshahr, Salmas, and Adelabad in Shiraz. Human rights sources indicate that at least 22 Baluchis are among the recent executed, most of whom faced drug-related charges. Yesterday, Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed serious concern over the "horrific" statistics of executions in Iran and urged Iranian officials to abolish the death penalty or halt all executions, following the pattern of most countries. Turk described the Iranian government as one of the largest executors of death sentences in the world, stating that this year, "an average of more than 10 people have been executed in Iran every week." Additionally, several UN human rights experts, including Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, condemned the recent surge in executions in Iran and called for a halt to death sentences in the country. These experts pointed to the executions of "Habib Asiyoud," "Yousef Mehrdad," and "Sadrullah Fazeli Zar" as lacking legal legitimacy, stating that the trials of many of these individuals lacked fair trial guarantees and did not meet international standards. Vedant Patel, Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, condemned the recent executions in Iran on Monday, describing them as a "serious reminder of the Iranian regime's intense eagerness to abuse and violate the human rights of the Iranian people." Following the intensification of executions in Iran, a group of Iranians held a protest in front of the office of the Islamic Republic's interests section in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 10.