In the morning of August 28, at least eight prisoners who were sentenced to death earlier, were executed in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. On August 27, 2019, these prisoners alongside few others were transferred to solidarity confinement cells in Rajai Shahr prison to get prepared for execution for drug-related felony or murder felonies. They were identified as the following:
Alireza Behrad, Manouchehr Dehghani, Ebrahim Yarmout Oghli, Ahmad Ghare Balaei, Siavash Inanlou, and Reza Mousavi Baraghani who were prisoners of Rajai Shahr prison and were sentenced to death on the charge of murder. In addition, prisoners of Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, Mahmoud Mirzai and his cousin, who were charged with “armed battery and drug trafficking” for possessing 22 kilograms of Morphine were executed.
Several other prisoners on the death row such as Mohsen Rezaeian and Alireza Aryai, who were sentenced to death earlier on the charge of murder, were returned to their wards by getting consent from the victim’s next of kin or been given more time. The status of Ali Gharaghaloui, the prisoner of ward 10 of Rajai Shahr prison, who was also transferred to the solidarity confinement cell is still unknown. The news of these executions has not been published by the Iranian media yet.
According to the international organizations, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. Based on 256 reports that have been registered by the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists Association in Iran, 195 death sentences and 236 people with death sentences were executed (including 13 executions in public) in Iran between January 1, 2018 and December 20, 2018. Six of them were juvenile offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime. Secret executions of prisoners reported by the independent sources and the human rights association indicate that 72% of executions are carried out in secret or without any public notice.