Three Men Executed for Drug Charges in Arak

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were executed in Arak Central Prison on February 14. One of the men has been identified as Mostafa Majnouni. The identities of the other two men have not been established at the time of writing. All three men were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Mostafa was from Arak and had been arrested in 2020 and sentenced to death. Nobody knows who the other two men were, it’s possible they were transferred to Arak Prison for execution from another prison.”

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 66 executions carried out in January, at least 43 (65%) people were executed for drug-related charges, none of which were officially announced.

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.