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

The Mizan news agency of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted the prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism. Mizan also accused them of burning a copy of the Qur’an, though it was not clear whether it was claimed the men did that or such imagery was shared via the Telegram channel[…]
In 2022, Iran executed at least 582 people, up from 333 in 2021, according to Iran Human Rights. Amnesty International’s most recent report on executions put Iran as the world’s second-largest executioner, behind China, where thousands of people are believed to be put to death a year