NCRI – The clerical regime in Iran secretly executed four more prisoners this week in the cities of Noshahr and Shiraz.
Three prisoners were hanged early morning on Tuesday in Adelabad prison in city of Shiraz. At least one prisoner had been sentenced to death for drug-related crimes.
A prisoner hanged in the main prison of Noshahr was in his thirties and a resident of the town of Quchan.
Furthermore, a group of seven prisoners in Kerman and three prisoners in the city of Bandar Abbas were transferred to isolation on Wednesday to await their execution.
Meanwhile, an Iranian official has defended the regime’s soaring execution rate for drugs offences under so-called ‘moderate’ President Hassan Rouhani.
Mohammadreza Habibi, the head of judiciary in Yazd province, said ‘no sentence can replace the death verdict’ as a means of reducing drug trafficking across the country.
He added: “There are some who are critical of the execution of drug traffickers. These should know that if there is no firmness and execution, drugs would be easily distributed across the country.”
Habibi also acknowledged that based on the regime’s own Law of Retribution, death sentences are not required for drug related crimes. But some death sentences must be handed out ‘based on the social situation and state verdicts’.
At least 1,200 people have been executed since Rouhani became president, including political prisoners, women and those committing crimes when under 18.
Iranian opposition groups and human rights organizations insist executions are being carried out to create fear and intimidation in society and to prevent any public expression of dissent against the regime.
Earlier this month, a number of human rights organizations demanded that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stops providing aide to the regime in Tehran until it has abolished executions for drug related offences.