2 Unidentified Afghan Men Executed in Karaj

According to HRANA news agency, two Afghan men were executed in Qezel Hesar Prison on 10 May. The unidentified men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Hossein Panjak, Abdolhossein Emami Moghaddam and Babak Aghayi were also executed at the prison that day. On death row for drug-related charges, their families gathered outside the prison in an attempt to save their lives. They were met with bullets and tear gas, with one person hospitalised.

According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 256 people were executed for drug-related offences in 2022, a more than two-fold increase compared to 2021 (126) and ten times more than 2020 (25).

Afghans constitute the largest group of non-Iranian execution and death row cases in Iranian prisons. In 2021, no execution of Afghan nationals was recorded until September, when five men were executed in the space of 35 days. On 10 October 2021, Iran Human Rights expressed its concern that the Taliban takeover in August had facilitated the execution of Afghan nationals. That number more than tripled in 2022, with 16 Afghan nationals including a juvenile offender and a woman executed. At least four Afghans have been executed in 2023.