5 Men Executed for Drug Charges in Isfahan

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, five men were executed in Isfahan Central Prison (Dastgerd) on 2 November. Three of the men’s identities have been established as Ebrahim Narouyi, a 42-year-old Baluch minority, 32-year-old Nasir Karimi from Fuman and 30-year-old Ali Hadei. The other two men’s identities have not been established at the time of writing.

All five men were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. According to informed sources, Nasir Karimi was arrested for three years ago for being in possession of heroin, Ali Hadei was on death row for two years and Ebrahim Narouyi was arrested around five years ago.

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

Ethnic minorities, the Baluch in particular, are grossly overrepresented in execution numbers in Iran. In 2022, at least 174 Baluch minorities including 3 women, were executed in 22 prisons across Iran, making up 30% of overall executions. This is while they represent just 2-6% of Iran’s population. Furthermore, at least 274 Baluch people have been executed for drug-related charges since 2021, 40% of all drug executions in that time period.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year for the past three years. At least 305 people were executed for drug-related charges between 1 January-10 October 2023, a 69% increase compared to the same period in 2022, and the number of drug-related executions in 2023 were close to 20 times higher than 2020.

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.