Rights group calls on Iran to quash death sentences for drinking alcohal

New York:  Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Iranian government to immediately quash death sentences for drinking alcohol.

“Iranian authorities should immediately suspend all use of the death penalty after reports that two death sentences for drinking alcohol issued by a lower court had been upheld,” the New York-based human rights organization said in a statement issued to the press on Friday.

It added, “Iran should abolish the death sentence completely for crimes that are not considered serious and exceptional under treaties that bind it, and provide further public information regarding the case against these individuals.”

Notably, on June 25, 2012, the official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported that the prosecutor general of Khorasan Razavi province, Hojjatoleslam Hasan Shariati, had confirmed that the Supreme Court had affirmed death sentences issued by a lower court against two people convicted of drinking alcohol.

He was quoted as saying that the two “had consumed alcoholic drinks for the third time” and officials were “in the process of making the necessary arrangements for the implementation of the execution order.” 

Alcohol consumption has been strictly forbidden in Iran due to Shari’a law.