The public executions in Torqabeh

IRAN: SEVENTEEN PRISONERS HANGED IN NEW YEAR’S FIRST FOUR DAYS

January 4, 2015: between 1 and 4 January, seventeen prisoners were executed in five different cities, including three in public.
On 1 January, at least 14 prisoners were executed in four Iranian prisons. A 38-year-old man, who was identified as A. Azizi, was hanged in the prison of Qazvin, reported the Iranian news agency FARS. He was arrested together with his wife and 18-year-old daughter while carrying 2,967 grams of heroin. The man was sentenced to death while his wife was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Four women were hanged in the Bam prison for drug related crimes, reported the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Seven prisoners were executed in the yard of Shahab prison in Kerman for drug trafficking, according to HRANA. In addition, two prisoners charged with murder, who had been transferred to solitary confinements a night before, were executed in Bandar Abbas central prison, reported the HRANA. A third prisoner was pardoned by the victim’s family and was returned to his cell.
On 4 January, three prisoners, identified as Mehdi V., Ehsan K. and Mahmoud V., were hanged in the town of Torqabeh near the city of Mashhad, FARS reported. They were convicted of raping a young woman in a village near Torqabeh. Two of them had been sentenced to death and the third one to hanging plus 100 lashes in public.
Since Hassan Rouhani became president of the clerical regime, over 1,200 have been executed including many in public. (Sources: Iran Human Rights, 02-04/01/2015; HRANA, 04/01/2015)