Iran has turned its prisons into sites of mass killing with at least 853 people executed in the Islamic republic in 2023, over half of them on drug-related charges, Amnesty International said on Thursday. The London-based group said in a report that stronger international action was needed to halt the rise in executions, otherwise “thousands” risked being hanged in the coming years. The Iranian authorities have “persisted with their state-sanctioned killing spree which has turned prisons into killing fields”, Amnesty said. The figure for 2023 was up 48 percent on the previous year and 56 perce…