Iranian authorities executed four individuals on Wednesday who were convicted of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol, which led to the deaths of 17 people last year, according to the judiciary. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported, “The death penalty for the four defendants in the case of alcohol poisoning was carried out at Karaj Central Prison.”
The defendants had been sentenced to death in September 2023 for distributing the tainted alcohol that resulted in at least 17 fatalities and hospitalized more than 190 people in Alborz province, west of Tehran.
Iran ranks second only to China in the number of annual executions, according to human rights organizations like Amnesty International.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran banned the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Since then, the black market for bootleg alcohol has flourished, with occasional contamination by toxic methanol in the natural ethanol, leading to mass poisonings.
In recent months, the latest incident reported by Iranian media resulted in the deaths of around 40 people in northern Iran. According to Mizan, five individuals have been arrested in connection with the poisonings, with four facing capital charges.
In Iran, only recognized Christian minorities, such as the Armenian community, are permitted to produce and consume alcohol, but this is done discreetly and behind closed doors to avoid offending Islamic sensibilities.