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U.S. | 'I comfort death row inmates in their final moments - the execution room is like a house of horrors'

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Reverend Jeff Hood, 40, wants to help condemned inmates 'feel human again' and vows to continue his efforts to befriend murderers in spite of death threats against his family A reverend who has made it his mission to comfort death row inmates in their final days has revealed the '"moral torture" his endeavor entails. Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, 40, lives with his wife and five children in Little Rock, Arkansas. But away from his normal home life, he can suddenly find himself holding the shoulder of a murderer inside an execution chamber, moments away from the end of their life. 

Iran | Seven executed for drug charges

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 20, 2024: Seven men including six Baluch and a Kurd were executed for drug-related charges. Five were executed in Kerman Central Prison and two in Chahar Bahar Prison.

According to Haalvsh, five men were executed for drug-related charges in Kerman Central Prison on 20 April. 

Four of the men have been named as 34-year-old Ahmadreza Miri from Zabol, 53-year-old Shamseddin Kashani, Shokat Shehbakhsh (Darkzehi) from the village of Chah Ahmad in Zahedan and Jamal Mardani, a 48-year-old Kurdish man from Miandoab.

The fifth man’s identity has not been reported.

Two other men were also executed for drug-related charges in Chahar Bahar Prison that day. 

Their identities have been reported as 30-year-old Saeed Jadgal and 33-year-old Mohammad Anjamrooz.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020. Baluch minorities who constitute 2-6% of Iran’s population, made up 30% of drug executions in 2023.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, April 21, 2024

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde



Location: Iran
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