On the first day of the new year, at least 15 prisoners were executed in various prisons across Iran. The executions, carried out in Malayer, Bandar Abbas, Yasuj, and Ghezel Hesar (Karaj) prisons, involved individuals convicted of drug-related charges and murder.
Details of the Executions
- Malayer Prison:
Mohammad Shafi Mousavi, convicted of murder, was hanged at dawn. - Bandar Abbas Prison:
Three prisoners were executed. One was identified as Hedayat Ghasemi from Rudan, convicted on drug-related charges. The other two, Afghan nationals, remain unidentified. - Yasuj Prison:
Pezhman Masoudi Koushk, around 25 years old, was executed at dawn. He had been convicted of murder. - Ghezel Hesar Prison, Karaj:
Ten prisoners were executed. Two of them, including Mohammad Hossein Mohammadi-Far and an Afghan national named Pasha, were convicted on drug-related charges.Eight others had been convicted of murder. Details of three cases, reported by Rokna, are as follows:
- Arshia, born in the 2000s, killed his stepfather with a handgun during an argument in December 2022.
- Amir, an Afghan national, was arrested in July 2022 for killing a man during a fight and was sentenced to death.
- Another prisoner, who killed his brother-in-law in October 2022 over an inheritance dispute, was among those executed.
The executions come amid growing concerns about the rising number of death sentences in Iran.
In 2024, the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists in Iran documented 812 cases related to the right to life, including the sentencing of 214 individuals to death and the execution of 930 individuals. Among these, 4 executions were carried out in public. Of those executed, 818 were male, 26 were female, and 5 were juvenile offenders—individuals under 18 years old at the time of their alleged crimes.
