Moein Ashrafi and Gholamreza Pardakhteh Hanged in Shahroud

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Shahroud Prison on 9 April 2025. One of the men has been established as 32-year-old Moein Ashrafi (right photo) from the village of Ghaleh Agha Abdollah Bastam who was arrested for a murder during a group fight five years ago. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

The second man’s identity has been established as Gholamreza Pardakhteh (Gorgij), a Baluch man who resided in Golestan province. He was arrested for drug-related offences seven years ago and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Moein Ashrafi’s family were willing to pay diya (blood money) up to 30 billion tomans (€273,000) but the victim’s family didn’t accept it.”

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 503 people were executed for drug-related charges, of which only under 3% were announced by official sources. 17% of all drug-related executions in 2024 were Baluch minorities while they represent 2-6% of Iran’s population.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”