Iran News Agency Mehr's coverage of a public hanging. Photo: Amin Rahmani / Mehr.

Semi-official Iranian state news agency Mehr featured a slideshow of a public spectacle in Tehran last week, when hundreds of onlookers came out in overcast skies to witness a public hanging.

The condemned man was convicted of smuggling eight kilos of heroin into the Islamic Republic, Mehr said.

On its website, Mehr featured photographs of women in black burqas, lined up along a fence on one side of the hanging, with men along another. Both groups were snapping pictures with cellphone cameras and recorded the public event with hand-held video recorders, as the execution was carried out.

Last month, human rights group Amnesty International reported a spike in Iranian executions. On January 16th, the group wrote: “Iran has carried out a total of 40 executions since the beginning of 2014, with at least 33 carried out in the past week alone.”

At the time, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “The spike in the number of executions carried out so far this month in Iran is alarming. The Iranian authorities’ attempts to change their international image are meaningless if at the same time executions continue to increase.”

Iran News Agency Mehr's coverage of a public hanging. Photo: Amin Rahmani / Mehr.

Iran News Agency Mehr's coverage of a public hanging. Photo: Amin Rahmani / Mehr.

Iran News Agency Mehr's coverage of a public hanging. Photo: Amin Rahmani / Mehr.