After the amendment, made to the drug trafficking law that was passed in 2017, a number of
death penalty sentences were commuted to a 30-year prison sentence and a 200 million Tomans
fine, regardless of the type and degree of the crime that was committed. There is no official or
readily available information as to the total number of death sentences which were commuted as
a result of the new legislation. Reportedly, in some cases judges requested family of inmates for
bribes in order to review cases.7 Reports raised concerns about the Iranian judiciary’s lack of
capacity to process all requests for commutation, as well as about the absence of an independent
mechanism to oversee the process.8 Following the adoption of the amendment, 24 individuals
were executed on drug related charges in 2018, 30 in 2019 and 25 in 2020.9 On May 3, Iran
Human Rights reported that in the first four months of 2021, 22 of the 82 executions were due to
drug-related charges, a threefold increase compared to the same period in the previous two years,
during which seven (2019) and nine (2020) people were executed on the same charges. 10 11
The Human Rights Committee has consistently underscored that drug-related offences do not
meet the threshold of ���most serious crimes” and that the death penalty should not be applied to
them.12
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not established a clear and transparent
procedure for reviewing the cases of individuals who have been sentenced to death under the
previous drug trafficking law.
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has NOT been implemented.
7
ECPM, IHR, https://iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran_2019-GB-BD.pdf
IHR, https://iranhr.net/en/articles/3325/
9
https://iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran_2021-gb-290321-BD.pdf
10
ECPM, Iran Human Rights, https://www.ecpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Rapport-iran-2020-gb-070420-WEB.pdf
11
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4721
12
CCPR/C/PAK/CO/1, para. 17; CCPR/C/THA/CO/2, para. 17; CCPR/C/KWT/CO/3, para. 22; A/71/372, para. 48; and Human
Rights Committee, general comment No. 36.
8
2