Iran hangs two men in rare executions over blasphemy charges

Iran has hanged two men convicted of blasphemy, authorities said, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as executions surge across the country following months of unrest.

Iran remains one of the world's top executioners, having put to death at least 203 prisoners since the start of this year alone, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights.

But carrying out executions for blasphemy remains rare, as previous cases saw the sentences reduced by authorities.

The two men executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak Prison in central Iran.

They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called "Critique of Superstition and Religion," according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Both men faced months of solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said.

“It is of extreme concern to us. I don’t believe this is just a one-off event,” Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, a member of the Congressionally mandated commission, told The Associated Press.

“I think that there is a sense that Iran is increasingly desperate. And when we know authoritarian theocracies are desperate, they often turn to very, very extreme acts.”

The Mizan news agency of Iran's judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism.

Mizan also accused them of burning a Quran, Islam's holy book, though it wasn't clear whether the men allegedly did that or such imagery was shared in the Telegram channel.

It wasn't immediately clear when Iran carried out its last execution for blasphemy.

The streak of executions comes as months-long protests over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country's morality police have cooled.