Iran: Another Prisoner Executed on Drug Charges

According to close sources and a report by the human rights news agency, HRANA, a prisoner by the name of Hamed Ghaedrahmat was executed on the morning of Saturday August 5.

Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the state-run media, have not announced this execution. 

The execution of prisoners with drug charges continues in Iran while the Iranian Parliament has approved a general plan to amend the law for combating drugs. The Parliament is scheduled to vote on the bill again in the coming days. In the event the bill receives final approval, the death sentences for many prisoners with drug charges will be commuted to a prison sentence.

"Had the Iranian authorities waited for the bill to pass, then the death sentences for many of those executed for drug offences would have been commuted to prison terms," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for Iran Human Rights, recently. "It is incomprehensible why the Iranian authorities, who have admitted that the death penalty doesn't reduce drug crimes, can't stop drug-related executions for just a few months."