Man executed for drinking alcohol is one of 123 executions in Iran in 2020

Iran has executed a prisoner for the crime of drinking alcohol despite repeated warnings against it. His death is one of 123 executions carried out by the Iranian regime in the first six months of this year. The unnamed prisoner was executed in Mashhad Central Prison at dawn on July 9, having been sentenced to death for "drinking alcohol for the sixth time," according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR). Iran implements a legal system based on Islamic Sharia law and carries out 'hadud' punishments - those mandated by God in accordance with the Quran. Consequently, the Islamic Penal Code currently states: "Where anyone commits the same offense punishable by hadd (singular of hadud) three times, and each time the hadd punishment is executed upon him/her, the hadd punishment on the fourth occasion shall be the death penalty.”Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR said: "with this execution, the Islamic Republic's judicial system has once again proven that its views are no different from those of ISIS."The execution is one of the few recorded for the crime of drinking alcohol. However, most executions take place behind closed doors and are not officially declared by the authorities. Research by IHR estimated that 123 people have been executed by Iran so far this year, an increase of 10% over the same period of 2019. Just 36 of these deaths were announced in the media and by officials; the remaining 87 were carried out secretly by the regime, and were independently verified by IHR through sources within the country. Among those executed were 104 convicted on charges of "premeditated murder", seven on "drug-related offenses" and five on charges of "rape." Four were executed on charges of "moharebeh" (enmity against God), of which one was accused of having links with opposition parties, while the others were executed on unknown charges. One of the four, Hedayat Abdollahpour, was executed by firing squad in front of people said to be the complainants in the case - a method not used since the 1980s. In an official letter obtained by IHR, registrars confirmed Abdollahpour's death occurred as a result of "collisions with hard or sharp objects.”  Two of those convicted of premeditated murder were sentenced to death were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest. A child convict on death row was also killed after he was severely beaten by prison security officials, however, this death was not recorded among the executions. IHR only records unreported executions after verification by two credible, unrelated sources. Consequently, the true number of executions could be much higher than the 123 listed.