By Iran Human Rights    |    April 29, 2019

According to IHR sources, on the morning of April 28, 2019, a man hanged at Kerman Central Prison on drug charges.

Baluchi Activists Campaign revealed the prisoner’s name as Mohammad Bameri, 24, from Dalgan county of Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Baluchi activist Habibollah Sarbazi told IHR, “He was a poor student who has gone this way (drug trafficking) to earn some money for his college expenses. His execution made his family’s condition even worse.”

A day before, on April 27, prisoner Kamal Shahbakhs was executed at Kerman prison for drug offenses.

The new amendment to Iranian Anti-drug law which was enforced on November 14, 2017, includes a mechanism to limit the use of the death penalty and reduce the sentences of those sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The law was retroactive and could potentially save many prisoners’ lives after their case-review process.
The amendment specifies that the death penalty should be limited to those who have been carrying or have used weapons while trafficking, sponsoring or organizing narco gangs and inducting children under the age of 18 or people with intellectual disabilities into such gangs. Those with a prior prison term of more than 15 years would also be excluded from the commutations under the amendment.

IHR’s Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran shows that the number of drug-related execution has been reduced from 230 in 2017 to 24 people in 2018. Half of those 24 people were executed at Kerman prison in 2018. The recent executions raise concerns about a new wave of drug-related executions in Iran.

https://iranhr.net/en/articles/3721/