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