Four more people were hanged in Iran for drug-related charges, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported today. It did not indicate the time of the executions.
IRNA reports the four individuals were executed in the southeastern city of Kerman after their request for a pardon was denied.
The rate of executions in Iran has suddenly surged in the past two months, and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has condemned the “execution binge” in Iran, which many analysts see as a tool to intimidate anti-government protesters.
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace laureate, issued a statement last week along with six international human rights organizations, calling for an end to the “wave of executions” in Iran.