News

Tehran, 28 June (AKI) - Twenty-six alleged drug traffickers have been executed in northeast Iran, according to the Herana human rights website.

 The hangings were carried out last week at the Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashad without alerting the prisoners' family or lawyers, Herana said.

The website said human rights organisations have accused the prison of executing around 100 drug traffickers in secret over the past two years, many without having been tried.

The parliament recently passed a bill creating stiffer penalties for drug trafficking in Iran, where the crime has been a capital offence since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.