Mass Execution of 22 Non-Political Prisoners Including 7 Sunni Prisoners and 3 Afghan Nationals in Qazalhasar Prison

The judiciary of the Islamic Republic executed at least 22 prisoners en masse on Wednesday, August 8, in Qazalhasar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province. According to the website "Hrana," a media outlet for human rights activists in Iran, these 22 prisoners had previously been sentenced to death for charges related to "murder, drug offenses, and rape." Based on this report, seven of the prisoners were related to drug charges, four were charged with murder, three Afghan nationals were accused of "rape and forcible entry," and seven Sunni prisoners along with one other whose charges are unspecified were executed. The identities of six of the executed prisoners accused of drug offenses were reported as "Ismail Sharafi, Mohammad Gholami, Abdollah Shahnavazi, Shahab Maleki, Rasool (surname unspecified), and Ghanbari (first name unspecified)." Meanwhile, Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights, stated that the number of those executed on Wednesday was at least 29, and these individuals were executed in the central prison of Karaj and Qazalhasar. Previously, Hrana and Iran Human Rights had warned that over 20 ordinary crime prisoners had been transferred to solitary confinement for execution. The execution of these prisoners occurred one day after the execution of Reza Rasayi, a political prisoner, which sparked widespread reactions in the media and social networks. Moien Khazaeli, a lawyer, told VOA that the case of Reza Rasayi was filled with flaws and considered the execution of this political prisoner as a case of "governmental murder." Iran Human Rights had previously emphasized in a statistical report on August 4 that "the execution machine of the Islamic Republic has once again accelerated," and at least 300 people have been executed in Iran in the first seven months of the current calendar year. According to this report, out of the 300 executions recorded in the past seven months, only 28 executions were announced in the media inside Iran or through official sources, while the rest were confirmed through at least two independent sources related to this human rights organization. Among the executed, at least 172 were charged with drug-related offenses, 110 with murder, 15 with charges of corruption on earth, waging war against God, and rebellion, including 5 charged with "espionage for Israel," 5 with connections to "Sunni groups," five with "political or security charges," and 3 with charges of "rape."