On April 16, 2024, authorities at Urmia Prison executed an inmate convicted of drug-related offenses.

The individual put to death has been identified by HRANA as Afshin Bagh-Shirin, hailing from Kermanshah. He had been sentenced to death six years prior.

No official sources or domestic media outlets within the country have provided coverage of this execution at the time of writing. In 2023, 66% of HRANA’s reports on executions lacked official announcements by judicial authorities and went unreported by media inside Iran, highlighting a troubling lack of transparency in due process.

The reports from the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists for the year 2023 reveal a concerning prevalence of executions for drug offenses in Iran, constituting 56.4% of the total executions. For a comprehensive examination of the details and statistics surrounding the executions in Iran, refer to HRANA’s report.