While human rights organizations report a significant increase in drug-related executions in Iran, the Director General of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters has announced that reducing certain criteria for the death penalty for drug traffickers is currently under review as part of a legal amendment.
Hossein Zolfaghari, Director General of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters, emphasized that eliminating the death penalty is not on the agenda, stating:
“Reducing, not eliminating, the death penalty is one of the goals of amending the law, which is currently at the proposal stage and will not be the basis for action until it is passed.”
He added: “We do not intend to eliminate the death penalty for traffickers, but the certainty of punishment must replace the severity of punishment. If the criteria for execution are to be reduced, the offender must be certain that the designated punishment—for example, 30 years in prison—will be enforced without any reduction or commutation.”
Zolfaghari also announced efforts to target the financial networks of drug trafficking, stating that combating money laundering, tracking financial transactions, and controlling the use of cryptocurrencies in the drug trade are among the key focuses of the proposed amendments.
