Shirali Saeedi, Saman Mogouyi and Reza Keshavarz Executed in Isfahan

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Isfahan (Dastgerd) Central Prison on 23 December. Their identities have been established as 36-year-old Shirali Saeedi and 31-year-old Saman Mogouyi who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Newly obtained information has also revealed that another drug death row prisoner named Reza Keshavarzi was also executed at the prison on 15 December.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Shirali Saeedi was a butcher prior to arrest three years ago. Saman Mogouyi was arrested around five years ago and Reza Keshavarz had been on death row for around four years.

On 21 December, IHRNGO warned of more drug executions being carried out after an Iranian MP from Lorestan province stated that the cases of 1000-2000 drug death row inmates were at implementation stage.

At the time of writing, their executions have not 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.