On March 7, an inmate convicted of drug-related crimes, Mehdi Gorgij, 50 years old and a father of two, was executed in Zanjan Prison, as reported by Haal Vsh.

Gorgij had been arrested four years ago in Urmia on charges of drug offenses, subsequently imprisoned in Zanjan, and ultimately sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in the same province.

The execution of Gorgij occurred without prior notice to his family, denying him the opportunity for a final family visitation.

Notably, no official sources or domestic media outlets in the country have covered this execution as of the time of writing. The absence of official information raises concerns, further underscored by the fact that 66% of HRANA’s reports on executions lacked official announcements from judicial authorities and remained unreported by media outlets within Iran.

The reports from the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists for the year 2023 also 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.