Criminology and Psychology

Iran has hanged two convicted drug smugglers inside a Tehran prison, Iran's state-run newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of executions that has been criticised by rights groups and European governments.Since authorities launched a clampdown on "immoral behaviour" in July 2007, police have arrested dozens of drug addicts, smugglers, rapists and murderers.Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since the 1979 Islamic revolution."The two men were drug smugglers. They were hanged inside Tehran's Ghezel Hesar prison on Tuesday morning," the Iran newspaper said.It said a Tehran court last year sentenced one of them to life term in prison but after he tried to smuggle narcotics into the jail, this was upgraded to the death sentence."Police found out he was trying to smuggle heroin and opium he got from his friend when returning to the prison from th...

news report said Tuesday that Iranian forces killed nine armed drug traffickers. Irans Fars news agency said the clash took place between security forces and the alleged smugglers in a desert area of the southeastern Kerman province. "In a clash between security forces and bandits, nine drug smugglers were killed and a large amount of weapons was destroyed," the report said. The region is known to be a major smuggling route for drugs and other illegal materials.

Iranian security forces have killed 12 drug smugglers and seized 500kg of narcotics in two operations near the border with Afghanistan, state media says.The drug traffickers were killed near the city of Taibad in Khorasan Razavi province in the last 48 hours, the official IRNA news agency said, without elaborating.Iran is on the heroin smuggling route to the West from Afghanistan, the world's number one producer of the opium poppy which is the key ingredient for heroin. More than 3,300 Iranian security personnel have died fighting drug smugglers since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.