Indiscriminate executions of the alleged drug traffickers

Iran Human Rights: Eight prisoners were hanged in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz (Southern Iran), reported the state run Iranian media today.

According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary, the eight prisoners were all convicted of drug-related charges. According to some reports the executions took place yesterday, Sunday April 15.

None of the prisoners were identified by name.

According to another report by the state run Iranian news agency Fars, tens of drug-convicted prisoners are scheduled to be executed in the northwestern province of Ardebil. The report which was quoting the chief prosecutor of Ardebil, Gholamali Rezaei, said: "85 (alleged) drug traffickers were sentenced to death in the province of Ardebil last year (20. March 2011 to 20. March 2012)". He continued:”Some of the 85 prisoners sentenced to death, were executed last year, and the rest of them will be executed during this year".

According to the official Iranian reports 3 unidentified prisoners have been executed in the province of Ardebil in 2011.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights strongly condemned the executions and urged the international community to react to Iranian regime’s indiscriminate execution of propel under the pretext of fighting the drug trafficking. He said: "Unfortunately the international community does not react strongly enough to the execution of alleged drug traffickers". Amiry-Moghaddam added: "We know that many of those executed for drug trafficking are among the weakest members of the Iranian society and are just being easy targets for the Iranian authority’s execution machine that is meant to spread terror among the people".

According to IHR’s annual report on the death penalty in 2011 in Iran, more than 80% of those executed in Iran are charged with drug-related crimes, but only 9% of those officially executed for such charges are identified by their full names.