Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 23 October 2026: Navid Mehdipour, Valid Hassani and Shahram Babanzadeh were executed in Shiraz Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 18 October 2026. Their identities have been established as 33-year-old Valid Hassani (right photo) from Masjed Soleiman and 30-year-old Shahram Babanzadeh (left photo) from Bojnourd. Valid was arrested two years ago and Shahram was arrested three years ago. They were both sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “"Prior to his arrest, Shahram was a car mechanic and lived with his mother and sister. His mother suffered from a severe illness, and Shahram had been forced to turn to selling drugs to cover the monthly cost of 52 million tomans for her chemotherapy."
Another man was hanged at the prison on 21 October. He has been identified as 27-year-old Navid Mehdipour who was arrested three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of his friend.
IHRNGO previously reported the execution of Borjali Taghizadeh-Amirsalari and Farshad Jamalabadi, bringing the total number of executions at the prison to three that day.
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 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. In the first nine months of 2026, at least 211 people were executed for drug-related charges.