Kurdish Hossein Mohammadi Executed in Rasht

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Rasht Central Prison on 12 October. His identity has been established as 52-year-old Hossein Mohammadi who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

One of his relatives told Iran Human Rights: “Hossein Mohammadi needed to go to Tehran to bring his sister back with him when he was trying to organise his son’s wedding 12 years ago. His neighbour told Hossein, I have a car, let’s go together and you can help me on the way there. His neighbour had drugs with him and they were arrested on the route.”

“Two of Hossein Mohammadi’s relatives were previously executed. One of them, Esmail Mohammadi, was executed for membership in Komala party in 2005,” he added.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year for the past three years. At least 206 people were executed for drug-related charges in the first six months of 2023, a 126% rise compared to the same period in 2022 when 91 were executed. 40 people were executed in the same period in 2021.

The number of drug executions dramatically dropped in 2018 following a 2017 Amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Laws. Consequently, drug executions ranged between 24-30 per annum between 2018-2020. The Amendment was reversed in practice in 2021 when executions increased ten-fold to 126 in 2021 and doubled again in 2022 with 256 drug-related executions. On 13 September 2023, IHRNGO reported a 94% rise in the number of drug-related executions in the year following the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in September 2022.

Read IHRNGO's report on drug-related executions for the occasion of World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2023: