20 people executed in the last three days in Iran

Iran Human Rights, March 2: According to different reports from Iran, at least 20 people may have been executed during the last three days. All those executed have been charged with drug trafficking by the Iranian authorities.

No independent sources have confirmed the charges.

Seven people were executed in Kerman province:

Seven people were hanged in the towns of Jiroft and Bam in Kerman province, south east of Iran, reported the official web site of the Iranian judiciary yesterday March 1. According to this report five of the executions took place in the prison of Jiroft and two in the prison of Bam. Those who were executed were identified as: "Mohammad Nabi N." convicted of trafficking of 60 kilos of morphine, "Mehdi S." for keeping and carrying 8 kilos and 145 grams of crack, "Ali Bakhsh S." for keeping, carrying and selling 50 kilos opium, "Hamidreza D." for carrying 31 kilos and 250 grams of heroin, "Sohrab N" for carrying 2 180 grams of heroin, "Malek N." for keeping 900 grams of crack and "Saeed M" for participation in trafficking of 6 kilos morphine, 5 kilos heroin and 23 kilos of crack.

"Malek N" and "Saeed M" were hanged in the prison of Bam while the other five were hanged in the prison of Jiroft.

Three people were executed in Shiraz:

According to the official site of the Iranian judiciary in Shiraz, three people were hanged in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz. According to this report that was published yesterday, "A. A.", "H. R." and "S. K." were convicted of "armed" drug trafficking of heroin and opium.

According to the same website, another person identified as "M. M." was lashed 70 times in the "Khomeini square" of Lamerd , in the Fars province. He was convicted of stealing animals and sentenced to three years in prison and 70 lashes.

Execution of 8-11 people in Oroumieh:

According to reports from unofficial sources, between 8 to 11 people may have been executed in the prison od Oroumieh, north-west of Iran. According to the Kurdish news agency "Mokarian", eight people have been execued in Oroumieh during the past days. However, HRANA, reported that nine people were executed in this prison on Monday Februart 28th. According to this report 7 of those executed were Kurdish prisoners and two of them were Azari. Two of the executed were women according to the report. The campaign for the rights of the "ethnic minority" prisoners reported that 10 people were executed in the prison of Oroumieh, Three of them were identified as "Hamid Bahadori", "Sayad Ansari" and "Behzad Honareh". Another unconfirmed report said that 11 people have been executed in the prison of Oroumieh on Sunday. According to these reports, all of those executed in Oroumieh, were convicted of drug related charges.

Official Iranian sources haven’t confirmed Oroumieh’s executions.

According to the IHR’s annual report on the death penalty in Iran in 2010, at least 546 people were executed in 2010 in Iran. According to this report there are more than 200 cases of unconfirmed executions in addition to the 546, that haven’t been included among in the annual report.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, condemned these executions and said:" The Iranian regime uses execution as a tool to extend its survival".