Iran hangs two men for blasphemy as executions rise amid unrest

Iran has hanged two men convicted of blasphemy, according to authorities, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as the number of executions soars across the Islamic Republic after months of unrest.

The pair 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 spent months in solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said.

It was not immediately clear when Iran carried out its last execution for blasphemy. Other countries in the Middle East, such Saudi Arabia, also impose the death penalty for blasphemy.