Iran: Execution of At Least eight Prisoners

According to a close source, on the morning of Wednesday December 20, at least eight prisoners were executed at Rajai Shahr Central Prison. The prisoners, mostly charged with murder, were transferred to solitary confinement from different wards of the prison in a group of 10 on Monday December 18.

Four of the executed prisoners were identified as: Mostafa Chardouli from ward 2, Amir Abbas Ardestani from ward 3, Hamid Abdollahi from ward 6 (youth ward), and Nima Esma’ilian from ward 4.

“Hamid was 24 and had been in prison for murder since he was 19,” said a close source to Iran Human Rights (IHR) about Hamid Abdollahi.

Mohammad Qobad from ward 10 and Ali Ma’sumi from ward 7 were returned to their cells by either asking for time or winning the consent of the plaintiffs.

Moreover, on Saturday December 16, four other prisoners from ward 5 of this prison were transferred to solitary confinement to be executed in public. The prisoners were sentenced to death on the charge of armed robbery. They were identified as Moslem Mohammadi, Mohsen Kamali, and Abolfazl. According to the latest reports, the prisoners are still in solitary confinement.

The execution of the eight prisoners has not been announced by the state-run media so far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 142 of the 530 execution sentences in 2016 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.