Reuters Sep 30,2014 – A former psychologist has been executed for heresy in Iran after eight years in detention, human rights groups said, in the latest example of what activists say is a worrying rise in the use of death penalty by the Islamic Republic.
Mohsen Amir Aslani was hanged in a prison near the city of Karaj west of Tehran on Sept. 24, according to the Human Rights Activists based outside Iran, for “corruption on earth and heresy in religion”.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm at a reported increase in executions in Iran.
Iran has one of the highest levels of executions in the world, second to China, according to Amnesty.
Iran officially executed 373 people in 2013. But according to Cornell University’s Deathpenaltyworldwide.org database, there were between 624 and 727 last year, up from an estimated 314 to 580 in 2012.