Iran says it has executed leader of network that trafficked women for prostitution

Name: Daughter of Iranian-American environmentalist jailed in Iran fears US will not be able to free him
Uploaded: 2023-05-20T19:19:12.000Z
Duration: 2 min 12 s
Description: Daughter of Iranian-American environmentalist jailed in Iran fears US will not be able to free him

Iran’s judiciary said Shahrooz Sokhanvari, a man known as ‘Alex’, was the leader of an ‘escort and trafficking network of Iranian women and girls’ to countries in the region

It said Sokhanvari was executed on Saturday morning ‘for the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution’

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An Iranian paratrooper and Iranian flag in Tehran, Iran last month. On Saturday Iran’s judiciary said it had executed the head of a network that trafficked Iranian women to neighbouring countries for prostitution. Photo: WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters.

Reuters

Published: 3:19am, 21 May 2023

Iran’s judiciary said on Saturday that it had executed the head of a network that trafficked Iranian women to neighbouring countries for prostitution.

It said Shahrooz Sokhanvari, a man known as “Alex”, was the leader of an “escort and trafficking network of Iranian women and girls to some countries in the region”, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

It said Sokhanvari was executed on Saturday morning “for the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution”. Iranian media reported in 2020 that “Alex” had been detained in Malaysia in coordination with Interpol and brought to Iran. He was sentenced to death in September 2021 on charges of “corruption on earth”, a term Iranian authorities use to refer to a broad range of offences, including those related to morals.

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Daughter of Iranian-American environmentalist jailed in Iran fears US will not be able to free him

The activist HRANA news agency said several women had also been arrested in the same case and faced serious charges.

Recorded executions in Iran soared from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022, the second-highest in the world after China, Amnesty International said in a report this week.

Two women were sentenced to death two years ago on charges of “corruption on earth” and human trafficking. However, advocates said those women were innocent LGBTQ rights activists.

Former US President Donald Trump’s administration in 2017 added Iran to a US list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking. Two years later, the US State Department again designated Iran as a so-called Tier 3 country, the report’s ranking for countries that do the least to tackle the crime.