URMIA, South Azerbaijan

Araz News: Six prisoners prisoners convicted of drug trafficking were executed in the city of Urmia May 17.

According to local news site HRANA, Shahin Salehi, Haji Abbasi, Ahmed Shiri, Larif Alizadeh, Abdul Aziz Fuladi, and Hasan Bina, were executed in Urmia’s Central Prison. The public was not made aware of neither the cause for detaining the six prisoners nor their summary executions.

Iranian human rights organizations have been critical of a wave of unannounced executions throughout Iran. Often prisoners of non-violent crimes are executed without proper notice to the families of victims.

The issue of increasing executions has also been of concern to UN human rights experts.