IRAN: NINE EXECUTED OVER DRUG CHARGES, MURDER

November 13, 2016: Iranian authorities executed at least nine prisoners today. 
In the morning, three unidentified prisoners were reportedly hanged at Rasht's Lakan Prison (Gilan province, northern Iran) and six prisoners were reportedly hanged at Urmia's Darya Prison (West Azerbaijan province, northwestern Iran).
According to the state-run news agency Fars, two of the prisoners executed at Lakan Prison were sentenced to death on drug related charges and the other prisoner was sentenced to death on murder charges. 
The report says one of the drug related prisoners was 56 years old and charged with trafficking 500 grams of heroin while the other prisoner was 33 years old and charged with possession of 997 grams of crack and one kilogram of opium. 
The report says the prisoner hanged on murder charges was 36 years old. The names of the prisoners were not mentioned in the report.
According to the human rights news agency HRANA, the prisoners hanged at Darya Prison were all sentenced to death on drug related charges. 
These prisoners were reportedly transferred to solitary confinement the day before their execution. 
HRANA has identified these prisoners as: Karam Gholizadeh (charged with possessing and trafficking four kilograms of heroin), Mahkoom Ayjak (details of case file unknown), Aref Esmaeili (jailed for three years before he was executed, charged with possessing and trafficking 800 grams of narcotics), Nasser Hosseini (jailed for three years before he was executed), Farrokh Abdini (charged with possessing and trafficking one kilogram of heroin), and Javad Asghari (jailed for four years before he was executed). (Source: Iran Human Rights, November 16, 2016)