Tehran: Iran hanged on Wednesday seven men convicted of drug trafficking and another found guilty of raping a teenage girl, the state news agency IRNA reported.
The convicted rapist was hanged in Tehran's Evin prison for kidnapping and raping a teenage girl, the report said.
The other seven hangings were also carried out in Tehran, the report said, without specifying whether they also took place in a prison or whether they were in public.
The latest hangings bring to 28 the number of executions reported in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. Most of them were of drug traffickers.
At least 179 people were executed in 2010.
Along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States, Iran has one of the highest numbers of executions each year.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are other crimes punishable by death in Iran.
The Islamic republic says that the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.