At Least 10 Men Including Afghan National Executed in Ghezelhesar Prison

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least ten men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison on 11 December. Six of those executed were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder in separate cases. Their identities have been established as Ahmad Jahankhani, Sirous Ahmadi, Meisam Kargar, Hassan (Nasrollah) Yousefi, Iman Khanabdoli and Soleiman Koushaki.

The other four men who were on death row for drug-related offences, have been identified as Rahman Sarlak, Naser Shahouzehi, a Baluch minority, Iman Moghadam and Abdollah Tajik, an Afghan national.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have 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.”