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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Fazel Shafiei and Morteza Nadimi who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges and an unidentified man on death row for murder, were executed in Shiraz prisons.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Shiraz Central Prison (Adel Abad) on 24 January. Their identities have been established as 40-year-old Fazel Shafiei and 35-year-old Morteza Nadimi who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court separately.
An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Fazel Shafiei and Morteza Nadimi were transferred from Ward 11 of Adel Abad Prison for execution. Fazel was arrested four years ago and Morteza two years ago.”
An unidentified man was also executed at Pirbanu Prison in Shiraz that day. He was arrested five years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.
At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.
Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year for the past three years. At least 305 people were executed for drug-related charges between 1 January-10 October 2023, a 69% increase compared to the same period in 2022, and the number of drug-related executions in 2023 were close to 20 times higher than 2020.
The number of drug executions dramatically dropped in 2018 following a 2017 Amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Laws. Consequently, drug executions ranged between 24-30 per annum between 2018-2020. The Amendment was reversed in practice in 2021 when executions increased ten-fold to 126 in 2021 and doubled again in 2022 with 256 drug-related executions. On 13 September 2023, IHRNGO reported a 94% rise in the number of drug-related executions in the year following the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in September 2022.
