Iran | Executions in Karaj, Ahvaz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 29, 2023: Eghbal Fathollahi and Mohsen Amrayi were executed for drug-related charges in Ghezelhesar Prison, Karaj. Two other men were returned to the general population after obtaining last minute extensions in their case.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least two men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison on 28 November. Their identities have been established as Eghbal Fathollahi and Mohsen Amrayi who were sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

The two prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement in a group of five on 27 November. The other three men who are on death row for murder, were returned to their cells after obtaining extensions from the plaintiffs in the case.

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.

Kurdish Political Prisoner Ayoub Karimi Executed in Group Hanging

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 29, 2023: After spending 14 years on death row, Kurdish-Sunni political prisoner, Ayoub Karimi was executed with six other men in a group hanging in Ghezelhesar Prison this morning.

Iran Human Rights urges the international community to do everything in their power to stop the execution machine in Iran.

Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The execution of Ayoub Karimi, based on coerced confessions and without a fair trial, like the execution of other political prisoners, is a crime. The authorities of the Islamic Republic must be held accountable for this crime. The Islamic Republic, in the absence of international community's attention, have turned to the execution of political prisoners. The international community, especially governments adhering to human rights principles that have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, should break their silence in the face of the wave of executions and show an appropriate reaction.”

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Kurdish Sunni political prisoner Ayoub Karimi was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison with six other men on 29 November. The other men’s executions will be reported separately.

Ayoub Karimi who was a Kurdish and Sunni minority, was arrested along with Ghasem Abasteh, Anwar Khezri, Davoud Abdollahi, Farhad Salimi, Khosro Besharat and Kamran Sheikheh in January 2010.

They were interrogated in Urmia before being transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran. They were subsequently transferred to Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj where they were held until its closure in August when they were transferred to Ghezelhesar Prison. An informed source previously told IHRNGO that the seven political prisoners were physically and psychologically tortured to extract forced confessions.

They were sentenced to death for charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) and efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) through “armed action and membership in a Salafi jihadi group” in a case with seven defendants by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court in February/March 2016. One of their charges related to the death of a Sunni cleric named Mamousta Abdolrahim Tina.

Ghasem Abasteh was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison on 5 November.

Man Executed for Moharebeh in Ahvaz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 28, 2023: State media have reported the execution of Hani Shahbazi, a man sentenced to death for murder and moharebeh charges in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison.

According to Tasnim, a man was executed in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison. The unnamed man whose exact date of execution has not been specified, was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and moharebeh (enmity against god). He allegedly killed a policeman and IRGC officer in Shadegan on 3 December 2019.

A local human rights organisation named Karoun reported his identity as 32-year-old Hani Shahbazi from Shadegan.

Due to the vague definition, the charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) are used for a wide range of offences. Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code lists “establishing and running centres of corruption and prostitution” as one of the charges leading to the death penalty for efsad-fil-arz. Additionally, as it is within the Revolutionary Courts’ jurisdiction, there is considerable subjectivity in the judgements made in the cases.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, November 28-29, 2023

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Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term. STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

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