Four inmates were recently executed in Yazd and Kermanshah Central Prisons. None of these executions have been announced by official sources in Iran as of this writing.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, on Sunday, October 10, two inmates who had previously been convicted for drug-related offenses were executed in Yazd Central prison. The prisoners have been identified as father and son, Hossein and Ramin Dadkhah. They were executed after five years of imprisonment.

Similarly, on Friday, October 8, two inmates, convicted on charges of murder, were executed in Kermanshah Central Prison. One of these inmates, Ismail Soltan-Abadi, had been convicted in the oath ceremony. He was executed after 23 imprisonments, without the notification of his family and hence was deprived of the chance for a final visitation.

Oath ceremony (Ghassameh), whereby the conviction is grounded merely on the swearing of accusers and their relatives (who don’t need to be eyewitnesses) stands in violation of the right to have a fair trial. According to the Islamic penal code, in case of lack of compelling evidence, the judge may hold this ceremony wherein the swearing of 50 people for premeditated murder and 25 people for quasi- premeditated murder will be enough to verdict the accused guilty.

The other inmate, Afshar Fathi, 28 years old, was executed after four years imprisonment on the charge of murder.

Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita, according to international organizations. The Statistics and Publication Center of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) reported that between January 1 and December 20 of 2020, at least 236 citizens were executed.