DUBAI: Iran hanged two men Monday convicted of blasphemy, authorities said, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as executions surge across the Islamic Republic following months of unrest.
Iran remains one of the world’s top executioners, having put to death at least 203 prisoners since the start of this year alone, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. But carrying out executions for blasphemy remains rare, as previous cases saw the sentences reduced by authorities.
The two men executed, Yousuf Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak Prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both men faced months of solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said.
The Mizan news agency of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and promoted atheism.
Mizan also accused them of burning a Quran, Islam’s holy book, though it wasn’t clear whether the men allegedly did that or such imagery was shared in the Telegram channel.
It wasn’t immediately clear when Iran carried out its last execution for blasphemy.
In 2022, Iran executed at least 582 people, up from 333 people in 2021, according to Iran Human Rights. Amnesty International’s most-recent report on executions put Iran as the world’s second-largest executioner, behind only China, where thousands are believed to be put to death a year.
