Mansour Hadadi and Esmail Shehbakhsh Executed in Birjand

According to Haal Vsh, a man was executed in Birjand Central Prison on 22nd October. His identity has been reported as Mansour Hadadi from Zabol who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. He was executed without his family being notified and the right to a last visit with them.

Another man was also executed at the prison on 27th October. His identity has been reported as Esmail Shehbakhshi (Rahimdad Barahouyi Zirkari), a 47-year-old Baluch man from Zahedan. He was arrested in Birjand for carrying 60 kilograms of opium on 30 May 2021 and sentenced to death in “a case full of ambiguity.”

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

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020. In the first six months of 2024, at least 147 people were executed for the charges.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”