TEHRAN – Iran has hanged five people, including a man convicted of a murder he committed when he was 15, a newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of executions that have drawn international criticism.

The Etemad daily said Reza Hejazi, 20, was hanged on Tuesday in a prison in the central city of Isfahan for stabbing his friend to death when he was 15.

'Reza was hanged inside the prison in Isfahan on Tuesday at dawn,' said his lawyer Mohammad Mostafai.

Major human rights groups appealed to Iran in July to stop imposing the death penalty for crimes by juveniles and to commute sentences against nearly 140 youths known to be on death row.

Iran has executed at least 30 juvenile criminals since 1990, including seven in 2007, according to the groups which say Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only two other countries to do so.

The state-run Iran newspaper also reported hanging of two convicted drug smugglers inside Tehran's Ghezel Hesar prison on Tuesday. Two convicted rapists were also hanged on Tuesday in the city of Isfahan, the Etemad newspaper reported.

The Iran newspaper said a Tehran court last year sentenced one of the drug smugglers to life in prison but after he tried to smuggle narcotics into the jail, it was replaced with a death sentence.

'Police found out he was trying to smuggle heroin and opium he got from his friend when returning to the prison from the court,' the daily said. Since authorities launched a clampdown on 'immoral behaviour' in July 2007, police have arrested dozens of drug addicts, smugglers, rapists and murderers.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In July, 29 people were hanged in one day inside Tehran's Even prison. In September last year, 21 people were executed in one day in two different places.

Amnesty International in April said Iran executed at least 317 people last year, trailing only China which carried out 470 death sentences.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Hossein Jaseb, Editing by Sami Aboudi)