Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA)- Arafi Reigi, a 32-year-old prisoner of Zahedan’s Ward 5, was hanged to death early this morning, September 15, 2018.
Reigi had been in prison for six years on charges of drug trafficking and armed clashes, and had always denied the latter charge. According to a confidential source, Reigi was summoned September 12th for a purported transfer to a Ministry of Intelligence detention center. “Instead,” said the source, “he was taken to solitary confinement to await execution.”
Amnesty International annual reports indicate that Iran has the highest rate of execution in the world per capita. The HRANA Statistics Center reported that between March 21, 2017 and March 18, 2018, at least 322 persons have been executed and 236 have received the death penalty in Iran. Among those executed, there were 4 juvenile offenders—under 18 years of age at the time of the offense—and 23 executions carried out in public. More than sixty percent of Iran’s executions are not publicized, and are considered “secret” executions.