Iran executes leader of women trafficking network

The leader of an Iranian escort and trafficking network, Shahrooz Sokhanvari, also known as “Alex,” was executed on Saturday for the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution. The Iranian judiciary reported that Sokhanvari trafficked Iranian women and girls to neighboring countries in the region. In 2020, he was detained in Malaysia and brought to Iran with the help of Interpol. He was sentenced to death in September 2021 for corruption on earth, a term used by Iranian authorities to refer to a broad range of offenses, including those related to morals. Several women were also arrested in the same case and faced serious charges. Iran has been criticized by Amnesty International for its high number of executions, which increased from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022, making it the second-highest in the world after China. The US State Department has designated Iran as a Tier 3 country for failing to crack down on human trafficking, and the US does not provide non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance to any country that does not comply with minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and is not making efforts to do so.