Larijani Reiterates the Need to Change Death Penalty for Drug Offenses

Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary of the Human Rights Council of the Iranian Judiciary, reiterated on Monday, March 1, the futility of the death penalty for drug-related crimes and emphasized the need to change the law in this regard. Mr. Larijani, who is in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the UN Human Rights Conference, made this statement in an interview with CNN that aired on Monday. The Secretary of Human Rights of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic pointed out that '90 percent' of the death penalty statistics in Iran relate to drug offenses. Mohammad Javad Larijani also acknowledged that imposing the death penalty for drug-related crimes and executing it over the past four decades has been ineffective and 'does not yield the desired results.' He stressed that the laws regarding this penalty 'need reform,' and in this case, '90 percent of executions in Iran would decrease, which would be a significant step forward.' This is not the first time this judicial official has emphasized the need to change laws regarding the death penalty. He had previously stated in December 2014 that 'we are trying to change the law on executions resulting from drug offenses.' According to the Mizan news agency, affiliated with the Iranian Judiciary, he noted that 'no one wants the number of executions to be high' and added, 'If we succeed in passing this law in Parliament, then 80 percent of executions will be eliminated, and this could be significant news.' A member of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Iranian Parliament reported in December of this year that a proposal is being prepared and reviewed in this Parliament, which, if approved, would replace the death penalty for drug traffickers with life imprisonment, 'unless they have acted armed in drug trafficking.' In his interview with CNN, Mohammad Javad Larijani also reacted to the news of the execution of all men in a village in Sistan and Baluchestan province. Initially, he attempted to downplay this news, saying that in a small village 'consisting of four or five families,' the execution of all men is not unusual. However, he later acknowledged that the death penalty does not have the necessary deterrent effect to prevent drug-related crimes. The high number of executions in Iran has been at the forefront of criticisms regarding human rights conditions in Iran in recent years, and according to human rights organizations, under international law, drug-related crimes are not classified as serious offenses and should not warrant the death penalty. Amnesty International states that Iran is the world's leading country in terms of executions per capita, and since the beginning of the current year, at least 700 people have been executed in Iran.