Three Men Executed for Drug Charges in Karaj

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were executed in Karaj Penitentiary on February 14. Two of their identities have been established as Mojtaba Zarpasand and Mehdi Doustdari(photo) who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. The identity of the third man has not been established at the time of writing.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Mehdi Doustdari was one of the people injured in the prison riotin December. He was arrested for drug charges in 2019 and sentenced to death.”

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

On January 27, Iran Human Rights warned of the high number of drug executions currently being carried out in Iran. Of the 55 executions in the first 26 days of 2023, 37 were for drug-related offences.

Drug executions dramatically dropped between 2018-2020 following the Amendment to the Anti-Drug Laws in 2017. However, this reversed in practice in 2021 when numbers increased by five-fold and have continued to rise throughout 2022 and 2023.