Iran | Executions in Qom, Zahedan, Yasuj, Urmia, Rafsanjan, Saqqez, Dehdasht, Karaj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 10, 2023: Mehdi Nasiri and Abbas Ketabi were executed for drug-related charges in Qom Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least two men were executed in Qom Central Prison on 9 December. Their identities have been established as 41-year-old Mehdi Nasiri from Karaj and 47-year-old Abbas Ketabi from Qom.

Mehdi Nasiri was arrested for carrying 80 kilograms of heroin three years ago and Abbas Ketabi was arrested on the Qom-Arak road around five years ago. They were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

There are reports of more people being executed at the prison that day which Iran Human Rights is working to verify.

The number of drug executions dramatically dropped in 2018 following a 2017 Amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Laws. Consequently, drug executions ranged between 24-30 per annum between 2018-2020. The Amendment was reversed in practice in 2021 when executions increased ten-fold to 126 in 2021 and doubled again in 2022 with 256 drug-related executions. On 13 September 2023, IHRNGO reported a 94% rise in the number of drug-related executions in the year following the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in September 2022.

2 Baluch Men Executed for Drug Charges in Zahedan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2023: Abdolbaset Gorgij and Abdolaziz Shahlibar were executed for drug-related charges in Zahedan Central Prison.

According to Haal Vsh, two Baluch men were executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 9 December. Their identities have been reported as 33-year-old Abdolbaset Gorgij from Zahedan and 34-year-old Abdolaziz (Haml) Shahlibar from Delgan.

They were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. Abdolbaset was arrested around four years ago.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Ethnic minorities, the Baluch in particular, are grossly overrepresented in execution numbers in Iran. In 2022, at least 174 Baluch minorities including 3 women, were executed in 22 prisons across Iran, making up 30% of overall executions. This is while they represent just 2-5% of Iran’s population. Furthermore, at least 274 Baluch people have been executed for drug-related charges since 2021, 40% of all drug executions in that time period.

Man Executed in Yasuj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2023: Sadegh Ajdar, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Yasuj Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Yasuj Central Prison on 4 December. His identity has been established as Sadegh Ajdar who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

Sadegh was arrested around three years ago.

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

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, as the plaintiffs, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

3 Men Executed for Drug Charges in Urmia

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 8, 2023: Ali Shahinnejad, Solat Tousan and Janali Nadimi were executed for drug-related charges in Urmia Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were executed in Urmia Central Prison on 8 December. Their identities have been established as 39-year-old Ali Shahinnejad, Solat (Hamid) Tousan and Janali Nadimi (Dargahi).

All three men were Urmia and had been sentenced to death for drug-related charges in separate cases. They were transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions on 6 December.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Two Executed in Sanandaj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 7, 2023: Khaled Rouhi and Sirus Heidari, two men sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, were executed in Sanandaj Central Prison.

According to Hengaw, two men were executed in Sanandaj Central Prison on 6 December. Their identities have been reported as 60-year-old Khaled Rouhi and Sirus Heidari who were sentenced to qisas for murder. Khaled was on death row for 4 years and Sirus for 12 years.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Man Executed in Rafsanjan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 7, 2023: Amir Alikani, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Rafsanjan Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Rafsanjan Prison on 4 December. His identity has been established as Amir Alikhani who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

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

Man Executed for Rape in Saqqez

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 6, 2023: Kamal Elhami, a man sentenced to death for rape, was executed in Saqqez Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Saqqez Central Prison on 6 December. His identity has been established as 43-year-old Kamal Elhami who was arrested for rape charges five years ago.

He was sentenced to death for allegedly raping a conscript soldier.

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

In cases of rape, there is a high chance of defendants being tortured to make false confessions, which is used to issue death sentences. In Iran is one of the few countries in the world that issues the death penalty for rape. A lot of cases are also rushed without the defendants having access to a lawyer.

According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 23 people were executed for rape charges in 2022 compared to 10 in 2021 and 12 in 2020.

Man Executed in Dehdasht

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 6, 2023: Zabihollah Arjmand, a man sentenced to death for drug-related charges, was executed in Dehdasht Prison in Kohlgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Right, a man was executed in Dehdasht Prison on 6 December. His identity has been established as 35-year-old Zabihollah Arjmand who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

He said goodbye to his family in his last visit with them the day prior to his execution. According to informed sources Zabihollah was from a very poor family and the drugs found did not belong to him.

4 Men Executed for Drug Charges in Karaj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 6, 2023: Four men were executed for drug-related charges in Karaj Penitentiary.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Karaj Penitentiary on 5 December. Their identities have been established as Manouchehr Barzegar and Mojtaba Amiri from Hall 3 who were both from Harsin and sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

HRANA news agency also reported the executions of Sasan Maleki and Mehdi Moradi at the prison that day. They were also on death row for drug-related charges.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, December 5-10, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

Violent and sudden. What a firing squad execution looked like through my eyes

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — I’ve now watched through glass and bars as 11 men were put to death at a South Carolina prison. None of the previous 10 prepared me for watching the firing squad death of Brad Sigmon on Friday night. I might now be unique among U.S. reporters: I’ve witnessed three different methods — nine lethal injections and an electric chair execution. I can still hear the thunk of the breaker falling 21 years later. As a journalist you want to ready yourself for an assignment. You research a case. You read about the subject.

South Carolina Executes Brad Sigmond

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat was executed by firing squad Friday, the first U.S. prisoner in 15 years to die by that method, which he saw as preferable to the electric chair or lethal injection. Three volunteer prison employees used rifles to carry out the execution of Brad Sigmon, 67, who was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. Sigmon killed David and Gladys Larke in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a botched plot to kidnap their daughter. He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself.

America’s next killing spree: 10 days, five states, six death-row prisoners set to die

Desolate spectacle of executions begins again under Trump, in landscape of capital punishment as riven as US is as a whole David Leonard Wood. Jessie Hoffman. Aaron Gunches. Wendell Grissom. Edward Thomas James. Moises Sandoval Mendoza. So many names. So many dead men walking. Ten days, five states, six death row prisoners scheduled for execution. For a decade now, capital punishment in the US has been on the wane. Last year, for the 10th year running, there were fewer than 30 executions in America, and the number of new death sentences is also tracking at historic lows.

Todd Willingham: Ex-wife says convicted killer confessed

The former wife of a man whose 2004 execution in Texas has become a source of controversy has said he admitted setting the fire that killed their three daughters during a final prison meeting just weeks before he was put to death, according to a Texas newspaper. Stacy Kuykendall, the ex-wife of Cameron Todd Willingham, said in a statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published Sunday that Willingham told her he was upset by threats to divorce him after the new year. The fire that killed the couple's three girls was Dec. 23, 1991. Her last threat to divorce him, she said in a statement, occurred the night before the fire. "He said if I didn't have my girls I couldn't leave him and that I could never have Amber or the twins with anyone else but him," according to the statement from Kuykendall to the newspaper. Willingham went to his death proclaiming his innocence. And over the years, she has offered differing accounts. A Tribune investigation in 2004 showed the...

Iranian dissident risked execution by secretly filming luxurious lifestyle of those connected to the regime

Iranians in Tehran illicitly filmed scenes of their capital for Israeli Channel 12 news, an act that constitutes espionage in Iran and can warrant a death penalty. The clips, broadcast on Saturday, showed locals at high-end shopping malls that the videographers said are only financially accessible to those connected to the regime. “I filmed this video with great difficulty and fear, and I said I would send it to the Israeli Channel 12,” said a 44-year-old Iranian who sent footage for the report and went by the alias Ali, speaking in Persian. “I committed a dangerous act. If you just talk to Israelis, you become a spy and they will execute you.”

Indonesia | Briton faces death penalty for trafficking a kilogram of ecstasy in Bali

A British man is facing the death penalty for allegedly dealing a kilo of MDMA in Bali. Thomas Parker was seen for the first time since his January arrest on Thursday, paraded in front of media in an orange jumpsuit in Denpasar. The 32-year-old could face a firing squad if he is found guilty of trying to push the 1.055kg of Class A drugs police say they recovered in a mail package. MDMA is the main component in the party drug ecstasy. Parker was arrested outside an Airbnb in January, but the case went unreported until authorities showed the Brit shaven and handcuffed at a press conference yesterday.

Texas | Court stays execution of Texas man days before he was set to die by lethal injection

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso. It was the second scheduled execution in the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week. In Texas, the order was another reprieve for David Leonard Wood, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.

South Carolina death row inmate chooses firing squad as execution method

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be killed on March 7 A South Carolina death row inmate has chosen to be executed by a firing squad, which would make him only the fourth inmate in the U.S. to die by this execution method. Brad Sigmon, 67, who is scheduled to be killed on March 7, informed state officials on Friday that he wishes to die by firing squad rather than by lethal injection or the electric chair, citing, in part, the prolonged suffering the three inmates previously executed in the state had faced when they were killed by lethal injection.

South Carolina plans to carry out a firing squad execution. Is it safe for witnesses?

South Carolina plans to execute a man by firing squad on March 7, the first such execution in the state and the first in the nation in 15 years. But firearms experts are questioning whether South Carolina's indoor execution setup is safe for the workers who will shoot the prisoner and the people who will watch. Photos released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections show that the state intends to strap the prisoner, Brad Sigmon, to a metal seat in the same small, indoor brick death chamber where South Carolina has executed more than 40 other prisoners by electric chair and lethal injection since 1985.

Biden Commuted Their Death Sentences. Now What?

As three men challenge their commutations, others brace for imminent prison transfers and the finality of a life sentence with no chance of release. In the days after President Joe Biden commuted his death sentence, 40-year-old Rejon Taylor felt like he’d been reborn. After facing execution for virtually his entire adult life for a crime he committed at 18, he was fueled by a new sense of purpose. He was “a man on a mission,” he told me in an email on Christmas Day. “I will not squander this opportunity of mercy, of life.”

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog