TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The death penalty has failed to reduce drug trafficking in Iran, a senior Iranian judiciary official said on Saturday shortly before the scheduled execution of 12 people for narcotics-related offences.
Most narcotics are smuggled into Iran along its long, often lawless border with Afghanistan, which supplies about 90% of the world's opium from which heroin is made.
"The truth is, the execution of drug smugglers has had no deterrent effect," Muhammad Baqer Olfat, deputy head of judiciary for social affairs, was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
"We have fought full-force against smugglers according to the law, but unfortunately we are experiencing an increase in the volume of drugs trafficked to Iran, the transit of drugs through the country, the variety of drugs, and the number of people who are involved in it," Olfat said.
He said he had suggested to the judiciary chief that rather than the death penalty, traffickers should serve long prison terms with hard labor.
Muhammad-Javad Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council and a brother of the powerful judiciary chief, said in 2015 that more than 90% of executions in the country were for drug-related crimes.
He said the death penalty has not led to a significant fall in drug-related crimes and that the policy must be re-evaluated.
The Islamic Republic seized 388 tonnes of opium in 2012, around 72% of all such seizures globally, but says it has lost many security personnel in skirmishes with drug traffickers in volatile regions bordering Afghanistan and also Pakistan.
The United Nations has repeatedly praised Iran's battle against narcotics trafficking.