Iran has executed a 24-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan
Mehnaz Kakayi and Ali Soufian were put to death at dawn on March 29.
Kakayi had been convicted of murdering her fiancé following a verbal altercation over four years ago, while Soufian was executed on drug-related charges after three years of imprisonment.
Sources close to Kakayi’s case said she was under pressure from her father to enter an unwanted marriage at the time of the incident, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Iran executed at least 169 people in January and February alone, according to Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
During her first presentation to the UN Human Rights Council, Sato warned that if this pace continues, Iran will execute more than 1,000 people this year.
“I am very concerned about the rapid rise in the number of executions, especially in just the last two months as well,” Sato told IranWire in an exclusive interview following her presentation.
“I believe, looking at last year’s patterns, January and February are quiet months, but we’ve already identified at least 169 executions,” she added.