Rajai Shahr Executions Continue

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – At least two death row prisoners in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr Prison were executed in the early morning hours of Wednesday, August 29, 2018.

HRANA was able to confirm the identities of the executed prisoners: Mojtaba Asadi, who was detained in Ward 3, and Vahidollah Loghmani, age 54, reportedly from Afghanistan. Asadi was sentenced to death on a charge of murder, and Loghmani for a charge of armed drug trafficking.

HRANA was also able to confirm the identity of two prisoners from a group of at least five who were transferred to solitary confinement on Tuesday, August 28, pending execution: Mojtaba Asadi of Ward 3 and Shamsali Abdollahi of Ward 10.

When the plantiff in Abdollahi’s case permitted his execution to be delayed until further notice, he was returned to his prior Ward.

The fate of the two other prisoners is not yet known. If they were put to death, their executions have not been announced by the state-run media as of the time of this report.

An annual report published by the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) states that more than 60% of executions, called “secret executions,” are not disclosed by authorities. According to registered data from 2,945 reports by the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of HRAI, in the past year (from March 21, 2017, to March 18, 2018) at least 322 citizens were executed and 236 others were sentenced to death in Iran. Figuring among these are the execution of four juvenile offenders and 23 public hangings.