Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 3 August 2026: Siblings Soheila and Afshin Shahriari, two young siblings, have been sentenced to death by the Semnan Revolutionary Court.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, the Semnan Revolutionary Court sentenced Soheila Shahriari, 19, and Afshin Shariari, 21, to death on drug-related charges around two months ago. They were arrested for carrying 28 kilograms of heroin around nine months ago.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Afshin and Soheila, residents of Semnan, confessed in court that they were meant to transport the drugs to Tehran and agreed to the task solely to receive 100 million tomans each (approx. 600 euros). The family are tenants, and their father had borrowed money using promissory notes to start a business, but the enterprise failed and he went bankrupt. To pay off the debt and prevent their father's promissory notes from being enforced, the siblings repeatedly tried to obtain loans from various banks, but failed due to strict banking regulations and a lack of guarantors. Ultimately, driven by poverty and financial desperation, they resorted to transporting narcotics.”
Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 795 people were executed for drug-related charges, of which only 0.18% were announced by official sources. 13% of all drug-related executions in 2025 were Baluch minorities while they represent 2-6% of Iran’s population.
In December 2025, IHRNGO published a report titled “A Village of Graves: Widespread and Systematic Drug Executions in Iran,” which provides an overview of drug laws and documents the systematic violation of due process and fair trial rights in drug cases.