The Islamic Republic executed at least 13 individuals in Karaj and Qazalhesar prisons in one day

Human rights sources reported that judicial officials of the Islamic Republic executed at least 13 individuals in Karaj and Qazalhesar prisons on Sunday morning, January 14. Additionally, one prisoner was executed on Saturday in the Parsilon prison in Khorramabad. According to the report by Hrana, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, 11 of these individuals were executed in Karaj prison, with five of them charged with drug-related offenses. The identities of the five individuals executed for drug-related charges were reported as "Akbar Taj, Hojjat Miri, Hamid Nazari, Ahmad Latifi, and Mohammad Ali (surname unspecified)." The report did not mention the identities and charges of six other prisoners executed in Karaj. Furthermore, the Hengaw website reported that on Sunday morning, January 14, two prisoners named "Hadi Nazari and Ali Miri" were also executed for drug-related offenses in Qazalhesar prison in Alborz province. According to this report, these two prisoners were from the city of Harsin in Kermanshah province and their cases were linked. In addition, the Iran Human Rights Organization reported that judicial officials in Lorestan province executed a prisoner named "Reza Heydari" in the central prison of Khorramabad, known as Parsilon, on Saturday morning, January 13. Based on this report, Reza Heydari had been in prison for four years on drug-related charges. The execution of prisoners in Iran for various crimes has intensified in recent months, drawing significant domestic and international criticism. In previous days, the UN Human Rights Office stated that Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the execution of three men and one woman in Iran without a fair trial regarding alleged charges of "espionage" as deplorable. Volker Turk also called for an "immediate halt" to further executions and an "official end to the implementation of death sentences" in Iran. Additionally, Abram Paley, the Deputy Special Representative of the United States for Iran, condemned the Islamic Republic's issuance of death sentences for Mohsen Mazloom, Pejman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, and Mohammad (Hojir) Farahmand, four Kurdish citizens in Iran on Thursday, January 12. Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, the director of the Iran Human Rights Organization based in Norway, previously told Voice of America that most citizens executed in Iran face charges related to drugs and murder, but over 40 years of executions have shown that this has not reduced violent crimes and drug offenses in any way.