4 Men Executed for Drug Charges in Karaj

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Karaj Penitentiary on 5 December. Their identities have been established as Manouchehr Barzegar (pictured right) and Mojtaba Amiri (pictured left) from Hall 3 who were both from Harsin and sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

HRANA news agency also reported the executions of Sasan Maleki and Mehdi Moradi at the prison that day. They were also on death row for drug-related charges.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

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.