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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Iran | Executions in Khorramabad, Bushehr

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 5, 2024: Newly obtained information reveals that Ahmadreza Touni was executed for drug-related offences with Malek Ashtar in Khorramabad Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, another man was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison on 3 August. His identity has been established as 47-year-old Ahmadreza Touni from Dezful who was sentenced to death for drug-related offences by the Revolutionary Court.

IHRNGO previously reported the execution of another man named Malek Ashtar at the prison that day, bringing the number of executions to two people.

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

Drug-related executions have continuously risen every year since 2021. According to IHRNGO’s 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 471 people were executed for drug-related charges, an 84% increase compared to 2022 (256) and about 18 times the average of drug-related executions in 2018-2020. In the first six months of 2024, at least 147 people were executed for the charges.

On 10 April 2024, 80+ Iranian and international organisations and groups called for joint action to stop drug-related executions, urging UNODC to make “any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.”

Execution in Bushehr 


Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 5, 2024: State media have reported the execution of a man only named as Hoy Atef (surname unknown) for murder charges in a Bushehr prison.

According to Rokna, a man was executed in an unspecified Bushehr prison on 4 August. Only named as Hoy Atef (surname unknown), he was a 23-year-old student who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Per the report, he was arrested for the murder of a young woman who was a photographer four years ago.

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. Crucially, while an indicative amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, August 5, 2024

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

— Oscar Wilde



Location: Iran
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