Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 23, 2023: Mojtaba Ayami, a man sentenced to death for drug-related charges, was executed in Qom Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qom Central Prison on 21 December. His identity has been established as 47-year-old Mojtaba Ayami from Ghaleh Hassan Khan.
He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.
At the time of writing, his execution has 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.