According to Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Iranian vice president for Women and Family Affairs, there is a village in Iran where every single man has been executed by the government on drug charges.
While arguing for increased provisions for the families of convicts, she told Mehr News agency that,
“We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan (province) where every single man has been executed.”
According to Molaverdi, this will only turned the children of these men into potential drug traffickers, as they will now be forced to support their families due to lack of government support, or seek revenge.
The Iran Human Rights group reports that hundreds of people are hanged every year in Iran on drugs charges, while 2015 had the highest number of drug-related executions in 20 years. Most of those killed are from marginalized groups and ethnic minorities. According to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, a spokesperson of Iran Human Rights:
“Iranian authorities have repeatedly admitted that the death penalty has not solved the problem of drug trafficking, but they still continue to execute people for drug charges.”
The group is calling for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and other parties to stop providing equipment, funding, and technology to Iranian investigators until capital punishment is no longer practiced in the country.
In 2015, Iran has broken its record in executions. Most victims are either females or children.#IranElections2016 pic.twitter.com/6RZa5nrZrY
— إنفوجرافيك السعودية (@Infographic_ksa) February 27, 2016
Out of the nearly thousand hangings in Iran in 2015, about 600 hundred of these were the result of drug-related crimes. In 2016, there have been 31 hangings so far, even amidst international outcry related to unfair trials, forced confessions, and the arrests of minors and children. Research conducted in 2014 by Reprieve, a British human rights organization, has found that European UNDOC funding has resulted in more than 3,000 death sentences in Pakistan and Iran.
A spokesperson for the UNODC declined to comment on the specific instance of violence and denied playing a part in what has been called “Iran’s execution spree.”
