Iran: 23 executions in two days

 HRANA News Agency – Seven men were executed in Shiraz on Thursday, November 8, 2012, five of them publicly. 16 executions in different cities of Iran,

the day before.   According to the reports by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iranian regime hanged 23 men within two days. Seven men were executed in Shiraz on Thursday, November 8, 2012, five of them publicly. 16 executions in different cities of Iran, the day before: 10 men were executed in Evin prison, four men publicly in Shiraz and one in Kerman and one in Mashhad.  All of them were hanged on charges related to drug.       Iran, where murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death, is among countries with the highest annual record of executions in the world, along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.   Two weeks ago, an announcement by Iran that it had hanged 10 convicted drug traffickers prompted expressions of concern from the United Nations and the European Union.   EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “appalled” by the executions while the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said he was “shocked.”   Shaheed said at the time more than 300 people had been recorded executed in the first eight months of the year but the figure was probably much higher as Iran was restricting information on the number of people hanged.   He reported 670 executions in 2011 in Iran, which has the world’s highest per capita use of the death penalty.   London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has repeatedly called on Iran not to execute people convicted of drug trafficking, saying the sentence is excessive.   Three-quarters of executions in Iran involve drug traffickers netted in the Islamic republic’s severe anti-drug laws.   Amnesty reported on October 9 that 344 people had been executed since the beginning of the year in Iran, most of them traffickers. In 2011 it said that Iran had carried out at least 360 executions, three-quarters stemming from drug-related cases.