Vahid Salemi and Behrouz Dinarbar Executed in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Shiraz Central Prison on 12 November. Their identities have been established as 35-year-old Vahid Salemi from Sadra (Fars province) and 50-year-old Behrouz Dinarbar from Kahnuj (Kerman province) who were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. Behrouz had been on death row for around six years and Vahid for around three years. They had their last family visits the day prior to their executions.

At the time of writing, the two men’s executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

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.