TEHRAN – Iran on Saturday hanged an Iranian-Dutch woman for drug smuggling after initially arresting her for anti-government protests, the Tehran prosecutor’s office said. Zahra Bahrami’s execution takes the total number of people hanged in Iran so far this year to 66 – on average more than two a day – according to an AFP tally based on media reports.
The Netherlands summoned Iran’s ambassador in the wake of the hanging, the Dutch foreign ministry said. “A drug trafficker named Zahra Bahrami, daughter of Ali, was hanged early on Saturday morning after she was convicted of selling and possessing drugs,” the Tehran prosecutor’s office said. Bahrami, a 46-year-old Iranian-born naturalised Dutch citizen, was reportedly arrested in December 2009 after joining a protest against the government while visiting relatives in the Islamic republic.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed on Saturday that she had been arrested for “security crimes.” But elaborating on the drug smuggling charge, the office said Bahrami had used her Dutch connections to smuggle narcotics into Iran. “The convict, a member of an international drug gang, smuggled cocaine to Iran using her Dutch connections and had twice shipped and distributed cocaine inside the country,” it said.
