Tehran: Iran has hanged 10 drug
traffickers, including seven who were executed in the southern
province of Kerman, media reports said on Wednesday.
The seven convicted drug smugglers were hanged in
prisons in cities of Bam and Jiroft in Kerman on Tuesday,
according to Arman newspaper.
Three others were hanged in a prison in the southern
city of Shiraz, according to the judiciary website of the
province of Fars of which Shiraz is the capital. The website
did not say when the three were executed.
All 10 were found guilty of possessing various amounts
of heroin, opium, crack cocaine and morphine, reports said.
Possession of more than 30 grams of narcotics is
punishable by death in Iran, as are murder, rape, armed
robbery and adultery.
The latest hangings bring to 89 the number of
executions reported in Iran so far in 2011, according to an
AFP count based on media reports. The authorities say 80
percent of those executed have been drug traffickers.
Iran media reported 179 hangings last year. In 2009,
Iran executed 388 people, according to international human
rights groups, making it second only to China in the number of
people it put to death.
The Islamic republic says the death penalty is
essential to maintain law and order and applied only after
exhaustive judicial proceedings.
PTI
