The head of a human trafficking ring that targeted Iranian women for prostitution in neighbouring countries has been executed by Iran's judiciary. Shahrooz Sokhanvari, known as "Alex," was convicted of leading an "escort and trafficking network of Iranian women and girls to some countries in the region," according to the Mizan news agency. Sokhanvari was arrested in Malaysia and brought to Iran in 2020, and was sentenced to death in September 2021 on charges of "corruption on earth," which is 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 connection with the case and faced serious charges, according to the activist HRANA news agency. Recorded executions in Iran have surged from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022, making it the second-highest number in the world after China, according to a recent report by Amnesty International.
In 2017, the Trump administration added Iran to a U.S. list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking. Two years later, the U.S. State Department again designated Iran as a so-called Tier 3 country, which is the report's ranking for countries that do the least to tackle the crime.
Under the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the United States 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. In its 2019 report, the State Department said, "The Government of Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so."