Iran hanged 4 convicted drug traffickers on Saturday in a prison in the central city of Isfahan, the ISNA news agency reported.
Prosecutor Mohammad Reza Habibi said the unidentified men were hanged for smuggling opium and "crack," the term used in Iran for a kind of heroin and not for crack cocaine.
The latest hangings bring to 20 the number of executions reported in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. Most of them were of drug traffickers.
At least 179 people were executed in 2010.
Along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States, Iran has one of the highest numbers of executions each year.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking,homosexuality, apostasy and adultery are other crimes punishable by death in Iran.
The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.
Source: Agence France-Presse, January 8, 2011
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