TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has hanged 15 men convicted of drug trafficking in the northeastern city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi province, the Quds newspaper reported on Monday.
"The judiciary decisively hits back at those who are behind insecurity and drug trafficking and has executed 15 drug traffickers," it quoted the chief of Mashhad prosecutors Gholam Hossein Esmaeeli as saying.
The paper said the executions took place in the past 10 days.
The hangings bring to at least 72 the number of executions carried out in Iran so far this year. At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to an Amnesty International report.
