Four Prisoners Executed for “Producing and Distributing Toxic Alcohol” in Karaj Central Prison
23-October-2024
Category: executions
October 23, 2024
News Category: Execution
Breathing in Confinement: At dawn on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, the death sentences of four prisoners who had previously been arrested and sentenced to death on charges of “moharebeh (waging war against God) and corruption on earth” through the “production and distribution of toxic alcoholic beverages” were carried out in Karaj Central Prison.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news agency of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, four prisoners were executed at dawn on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, in Karaj Central Prison. The identities of these prisoners, Seyed Hossein Mirahari, Mehdi Rabiei, Safa Sadeghi Hariri, and Farzad Ghafoori, have been confirmed by Breathing in Confinement.
It is worth noting that the families of these prisoners, along with a group of people, held a protest in front of the Parliament yesterday, chanting “Stop the executions” in opposition to the death sentences.
In a report by Rokna, it was claimed that these four prisoners were the main defendants in the case of poisonings caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Alborz province, which resulted in the deaths of 14 people and the poisoning of 191 others. These individuals were arrested on June 17, 2023, and following the interrogation were sentenced to death by the Third Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Alborz Province.
In mid-June of this year, the Supreme Court overturned their death sentences and referred the case to a parallel branch for reconsideration. However, after a re-examination of the case, these individuals were once again sentenced to death by the Second Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Karaj.
Earlier, the spokesperson for the judiciary stated that “the production and distribution of alcoholic beverages by these individuals resulted in the deaths of 17 people and the blindness of 191 others.”
According to an informed source on the case: “The main person who sold methanol (industrial alcohol) instead of ethanol (alcohol used in alcoholic beverages) was mysteriously exonerated, while the defendants, who were unaware of the situation and were innocent, were sentenced to death.”
Additionally, seven other defendants in this case were sentenced to imprisonment.
According to the annual report of the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, at least 848 citizens were executed in 2023. Of these, 7 were executed in public. 57 percent of the executions were for drug related charges.