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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

15 executed on drug charges in Iran

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Tehran's notorious Evin prison
Since Monday, April 23, 15 people have been executed at the Shahroud, Rejaishahr and Evin prisons in Iran.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that on April 25, 5 people convicted of drug charges were executed at Shahroud Prison. 4 of the convicts were Afghan nationals and they were charged with “storing large amounts of drugs.”

Their applications for pardon were processed in 2 stages and denied by the Pardons Commission.

On Tuesday, April 24, the website for the Human Rights and Democracy Activists of Iran reported the mass execution of 8 prisoners at Rejaishahr Prison in Karaj. One of the prisoners hanged in Karaj was also an Afghan national.

On April 24, another 2 prisoners, who had been transferred from Ghezel Hessar Prison to solitary confinement at Evin, were hanged at Evin.

In an earlier report, human rights activists said 9 prisoners convicted of drug charges were executed in Shiraz, Marvsadht, Semnan and Zanjan between April 15 and 20.

Ahmad Shaheed, the special UN rapporteur on human rights in Iran, has expressed concern over the growing number of executions in Iran since 2003.

In his report, he indicated there had been more than 400 executions in Iran in 2011 and he mentioned the possibility of unannounced executions. About 81 % of the death penalties are reportedly for drug charges.

According to Amnesty International, Iran has the 2nd-highest rate of executions in the world, surpassed only by China.

Source: Radio Zamaneh, April 25, 2012
Location: A02, Iran
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