3 Men Executed in Qazvin

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qazvin (Choobindar) Central Prison on 10th October. His identity has been established as Hamed Jafari, a 30-year-old man from Tabriz who was on death row for drug-related charges.

Hamed Jafari was executed with his co-defendant Ali Maroufkhani, whose execution was previously reportedby IHRNGO.

Furthermore, two other men were executed at the prison on 26th November. Jamshid Taherkhani (photo), a 51-year-old man from Takestan was arrested four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Gholam Alipour, 38, was sentenced to death for drug-related offences by the Revolutionary Court.

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.”