KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – An Iranian human rights organization reports that the Islamic Republic has executed at least 14 citizens of Afghanistan in its prisons since the beginning of 2024, a span of less than four months.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which monitors human rights abuses in Iran, disclosed in its report published on Sunday, April 21, that the recent enforcement of the death penalty for five Afghan nationals in the central prisons of Mashhad and Tabriz has raised the tally of executed Afghan nationals in Iranian prisons to 14 since the start of 2024.
The report says that in the early hours of Thursday, April 18, the death penalties of four Afghan nationals—Zaman Taheri, Salam Taheri, Ibrahim Nurzahi, and Ghulam Qadarsamani—were executed in Mashhad’s Vakilabad Central Prison.
According to the rights group, these individuals were detained five years ago on charges of drug trafficking and were subsequently sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad.
“The execution of these individuals has not been officially announced in government media as of this moment,” the report says.
According to the report, the death sentence of Hojatollah Bakhtawer, a 23-year-old Afghan national, was implemented in the central prison of Tabriz on April 17. Bakhtawer was arrested three years ago, charged with murder and then received a death sentence from the revolutionary courts.
The organization also reveals that in 2023, a total of 28 Afghan citizens were executed by the Iranian government for various offenses.
Iran, one of the countries with the highest rates of capital punishment in the world, has executed hundreds of people in recent decades for a variety of crimes, including drug offenses, national security concerns, and participation in anti-government protests.
The Islamic Republic is also one of the few countries that executes juvenile offenders, despite international law prohibiting the death penalty for people under 18 at the time of their offense.
In a joint report released last month, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) revealed that Iran executed at least 834 people in 2023, the highest number since 2015.
According to the report, the number of executions carried out by hanging in recent years increased by about 43% from 2022. Additionally, at least 22 women were executed, marking the highest number in the past decade.
Human rights organizations have criticized the Iranian government for conducting a series of executions they deem politically motivated. Amnesty International says that the death penalty, without exception, constitutes a violation of the right to life as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The exact figure for Afghan citizens executed annually in Iran remains unclear, as the Islamic Republic largely carries out execution orders secretly. However, it is commonly believed that a significant number of these executions stem from drug-related charges.
Afghanistan border regions with Iran are one of the major drug traffic routes out of the country that until recently produced more than 90 percent of the global opium consumption.
According to Amnesty International, two-thirds of all executions conducted in Iran last year were related to drug offenses. The organization also highlights that these executions frequently result from flawed investigations by Iran’s anti-narcotics police and other security agencies. Detainees are denied their due process rights, including access to legal representation and being subjected to torture.
“The shameless rate at which the authorities are carrying out drug-related executions, in violation of international law, exposes their lack of humanity and flagrant disregard for the right to life,” the rights group said.
