Iran says five executed for drug trafficking

The sentences carried out bring number of people hanged for smuggling to eight in a week

A protest against executions in Iran in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels, Belgium. EPA

Iranian authorities executed five people on Monday for armed drug smuggling in the south of the country, the judiciary reported.

The convicts, “all criminals and armed drug smugglers”, had been sentenced to death by hanging in a verdict upheld by Iran's top court, Mojtaba Ghahramani, Chief Justice of the southern province of Hormozgan, was quoted as saying.

“The sentences of the aforementioned were carried out this morning in Bandar Abbas and Minab prisons” in Hormozgan, he added.

The latest hangings bring the number of people executed in less than a week over drug smuggling to eight.

On Wednesday, the judiciary executed three convicted drug cartel members, following warnings from the UN over the “frighteningly” high number of executions in the country.

Iran executes more people a year than any other nation except China, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International.

On Monday, Iran also executed two people following a rare conviction for desecrating the Quran and insulting the Prophet Mohammed, prompting US condemnation and outcry from human rights groups.

On Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk sounded the alarm over Iran's “abominable” track record this year, with an average of more than 10 people being handed the sentence each week.

More than 210 people have already been executed in Iran this year, most of them for drug-related offences, but the UN said the actual number is probably much higher.

The country hanged 75 per cent more people in 2022 than the previous year, the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said in a joint report in April.

At least 582 people were executed in Iran last year, the highest number of executions in the country since 2015 and well above the 333 recorded in 2021, the two rights groups said.

- AFP contributed to this report