More Than 12 Executions Today – At Least 43 Executions in the Last 6 Days

Iran Human Rights, March 7, 2015: Three prisoners were executed in the prison of Ardebil on Saturday morning 7 March, reported the Iranian state media today. The prisoners who were not identified by name, we convicted of drug related charges in three different cases:

Possession and trafficking of 2900 grams of Crystal, possession and trafficking of 1900 grams of crack and buying 2 kilograms of heroin, said the report.

According to reports from human rights groups at least 9 prisoners were executed in the Gehzelhesar prison of Karaj, on Saturday March 7.

The website of “Human rights and democracy activists in Iran” (HRDAI) reported about the execution of 12 prisoners, among them two women, where of 8 men were identified by name. “Human rights activists news agency” (HRANA) reported about execution of 9 prisoners in the same prison and identified 8 of the prisoners by name. Except one of the names (Adel Salmanzadeh), the rest of the names in the two reports were different. All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges. Thus, as many as 20 prisoners might have been executed in Ghezelhesar prison on Saturday. HRANA published pictures of several of the prisoners, some of the funerals today.

Earlier this week at least 8 prisoners were hanged in Ghezelhesar prison, charged with drug-related offences.

Several reports by the Iranian media published quotes by the Iranian interior minister, Rahmani Fazli, saying “drug smugglers must be executed, the Judiciary must not show any mercy”.