Iran | 2 Executed in Birjand, Man Hanged in Yazd, Man Executed in Boroujed, 2 Hanged in Isfahan, Man Executed in Tabriz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 21, 2022: Zabiollah Barahouyi and Abdolvahed Ghanbarzehi, two Baluch men sentenced to death for drug-related charges, have been executed in Birjand Central Prison.

According to Hal Vash, two Baluch men were executed in Birjand Central Prison on July 21. Their identities have been reported as 38-year-old Zabiollah Barahouyi and 41-year-old Abdolvahed Ghanbarzehi. They were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Zabiollah Barahouyi was a father of five children from the village of Loutak in Zabol. Abdolvahed Ghanbarzehi was also a father of five and lived in Zahedan. They were arrested in separate cases in 2019.

At the time of writing, neither of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

At least 251 including 6 women and 67 Baluch minorities were executed in the first six months of 2022. This is double the number of executions in the same period in 2021 when 117 people were executed.

Baluch Heydar Heybozadeh Executed for Murder Despite Alibi

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 21, 2022: Heydar Heybozadeh, a Baluch man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Yazd Central Prison. There is no information about the fate of Amir Ojaghi who had also been transferred for execution.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Baluch man was executed in Yazd Central Prison on July 21. His identity has been established as 29-year-old Heydar Heybozadeh who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. He was a father of one and was transferred for execution from Ward 3 of Yazd Central Prison.

An informed source previously told Iran Human Rights: “Heydar Heybozadeh was arrested for the murder of a ranger around seven years ago. He denied the murder in court and said he wasn’t even at the location when the murder took place.”

Another prisoner named Amir Ojaghi, a Kermanshah native who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges, was transferred to solitary confinement along with Heydar but there is no information available about his fate at the time of writing.

According to Hal Vash which first reported news of Heydar Heybozadeh’s execution, he was in another city with his family at the time of the murder. His family were also arrested and detained at the time of his arrest.

At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to data gathered by Iran Human Rights, at least 183 people were executed on murder charges in 2021. Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

Peyman Goudarzi Executed for Murder in Boroujerd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 21, 2022: Peyman Goudarzi, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Boroujerd Prison.

According to Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Boroujerd Prison on July 11. His identity has been established as 27-year-old Peyman Goudarzi who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Peyman Goudarzi was executed after two years behind bars. He had committed the murder over financial disputes in 2018. The victim’s family had promised to forgo retribution but changed their minds two weeks before the execution. They said they don’t want diya and demanded execution.”

At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Mahmoud Sadeghi and Dariush Khazayi Executed for Drug Offences in Isfahan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 20, 2022: Mahmoud Sadeghi and Dariush Khazayi, a Baluch minority, were executed for drug-related charges in Isfahan Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Isfahan Central Prison on July 20. Their identities have been established as 30-year-old Mahmoud Sadeghi (pictured) and 57-year-old Dariush Khazayi.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Mahmoud Sadeghi had been detained in Ward 4 of the prison. He was a taxi driver prior to arrest and had been arrested on charges of carrying 100 kilograms of drugs in 2018 and sentenced to death. He was transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution last year and held there for four days but his execution wasn’t carried out for unknown reasons and he was returned to his cell. He was transferred for execution again two months ago and returned again.”

Mahmoud Sadeghi was a father of two and from the village of Mohammadieh Falavarjan.

“Dariush Khazayi was from Zabol and had been arrested for drug charges in 2018 and sentenced to death.”

According to Hal Vash which first reported news of the executions, Mahmoud and Dariush’s families had paid their last visits the day prior to their executions.

At the time of writing, neither of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to reports compiled by Iran Human Rights, at least 126 people were executed on drug-related charges in 2021, a fivefold increase compared to drug executions in the previous three years. This trend has continued into 2022, with 91 executions recorded in the first six months of 2022, double the number for the same period in 2021 when 40 people were executed.

Unnamed Man Executed for Murder in Tabriz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 20, 2022: Official sources have reported the execution of an unnamed man for murder in Tabriz Central Prison.

According to Rokna, a man was executed in Tabriz Central Prison on July 6. The unnamed 36-year-old man was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

The report states that the executed man had been convicted of murdering a woman. His sentence was carried out after the diya difference was paid from a public fund on account of the victim being a woman and her life being worth half of a man’s.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, July 20-21, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a 24-year-old man for murders he committed when he was a minor raises questions about the lay judge trial system and capital punishment. These include whether the lay judges correctly understood the spirit of the Juvenile Law in sentencing the defendant to death. It was the 1st death sentence handed down on a minor in a lay judge trial. The murders took place in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2010 when Yutaro Chiba was 18 - meaning he fell under the purview of the Juvenile Law. Chiba was convicted of entering his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing to death the girl's sister and a female friend of the girl with a butcher knife, seriously injuring a male friend of the sister and abducting the girl. Prosecutors said Chiba killed the victims because they were trying to separate him and his former girlfriend. Since Chiba pleaded n...

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

Texas: The inmates who refused to die quietly and had to be gassed out of their cells before execution

Former crime reporter Michelle Lyons, who witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, reveals the desperate acts of death row prisoners who refused to accept their fate After spending years or often decades locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, most Death Row inmates go willingly to their executions. However, some refuse to die quietly - with officers forced to gas them out of cells, strap up their heads and even give chase across prison grounds. Michelle Lyons, who has witnessed nearly 300 executions in Texas, US, exclusively tells Sun Online how certain inmates "fight like hell" in their last moments. On most occasions, Michelle watched from the witness area, with the killers already on the gurney - the stretcher where they'd be given a lethal injection. Seven prisoners once tried to escape from the Row in Huntsville - with one shoving magazines and newspapers under his clothes to help him roll over razor-wire fences. Others have had to b...

Florida executes Dennis Sochor

Man, 74, becomes oldest inmate executed in Florida in state’s 10th lethal injection this year Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was 1 of 3 older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state. Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He was convicted of killing a woman on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

Oldest inmate set to be executed in Florida will face strict spending limit for final meal

An entire category of food is also off-limits for final meal requests in Florida Florida is currently preparing to execute its oldest inmate later today (July 14), a 74-year-old convicted murderer who has been on death row since the 1980s—but his final meal will be limited by a strict budget. Dennis Sochor is scheduled to be put to death later today, making history as the oldest inmate to ever be executed in the state. The criminal, who has been on death row for nearly 40 years, will be administered the lethal three-drug injection, with the process due to begin at around 6pm.

Idaho | Death row prisoners sue over state's new firing squad

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Florida to execute William Silvia for 2006 shooting murder of wife

William Silvia, convicted of the 2006 shooting murder of his wife, Patricia, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in August, according to a death warrant filed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 17. If all previously scheduled executions go as planned, Silvia will be the 13th person put to death in Florida this year, following a record-breaking 19 executions in 2025. Silvia, now 61, went to his estranged wife's mother's house in Seminole County to attempt to reconcile with her, but first he calmly bought a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, prosecutors said. After talking to Patricia Silvia, Silvia got the shotgun from his truck, shot her mother, Betty Woodard, in the face, and fatally shot Patricia in the head, court records show. Woodard, who was standing in front of her daughter, lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog