Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – Iran Human Rights Organization says Mohsen Safari, who was convicted on narcotics charges, has been executed despite a doctor’s diagnosis that he suffered from a mental disorder.
The rights group quoted Safari’s relatives as saying on July 27 that he was executed at the request of the Counterintelligence Organization.
Safari was arrested in 2009 after being caught with heroin and later sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court.
The family said the execution was carried out even though a doctor had diagnosed Safari as being bipolar and despite the fact that Article 149 of the Islamic Criminal Code states that if someone is “mentally disturbed” at the time of committing a crime “in such a way that they lack willpower or discernment,” they are “considered insane and not criminally responsible.”
Safari was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement ahead of execution twice in May but each time was returned to prison by order of a forensic doctor.
As of June 28, at least 239 executions had been recorded in Iran this year, including more than three a day over the past month, according to the Iran Human Rights Organization.
Some human rights sources, including the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), say more than 85 percent of executions in Iran are carried out “in secret and without official and public information.”
The rise in the number of executions began last September after Ebrahim Raisi, an ex-head of the judiciary, became president and former Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei took over the judiciary.
Activists say that Iran is in the throes of a major crackdown as protests continue over living conditions in a severe economic crisis.
