Iran | Executions in Nahavand, Qazvin, Tabriz, Miandoab, Yazd, Karaj, Zanjan, Khaf

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 25, 2024: Vahid Abbasi, a Kurdish man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Nahavand Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Nahavand Prison on 22 August. His identity has been established as 33-year-old Vahid Abbasi who was arrested for murder three years ago. He was sentenced to qisas by the Criminal Court.

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, 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.

Execution in Qazvin

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 25, 2024: Abbas Rashidi, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Qazvin Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qazvin (Choobindar) Central Prison on 24 August. His identity has been established as 45-year-old Abbas Rashidi who was sentenced to death for drug-related offences by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Abbas Rashidi was a father of two and a painter prior to arrest. He was arrested three years ago.”

At the time of writing, his execution has 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.

Execution in Tabriz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 23, 2024: Mohammad Khaled Jahangiri, a Kurdish man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Tabriz Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 22 August. His identity has been established as Mohammad Khaled Jahangiri, a Kurdish man from the village of Balu in Urmia. He was sentenced to death for drug-related offences by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohammad Khaled Jahangiri was married with two children. He was arrested for drug offences five years ago.”

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

Execution in Miandoab

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 22, 2024: Mohammad Daghestani, a Kurdish man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Miandoab Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Miandoab Prison on 21st August. His identity has been established as 49-year-old Mohammad Daghestani from Haki village in Urmia. He was sentenced to death for drug-related offences by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohammad Daghestani was a Kurdish citizen who had two wives and was arrested for carrying 200 kilograms of narcotics around two years ago.”

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

Execution in Yazd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 21, 2024: State media reported the execution of an unnamed man for rape and sexual assault charges at an unspecified prison in Yazd.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and quoting Hossein Tahmasebi, the Yazd province head of judiciary, a man was executed at an unspecified prison at an unspecified date.

The man was arrested for rape and sexual assault charges around five years ago and sentenced to death.

Hossein Tahmasebi said: “The individual raped multiple girls and women after luring them as a fortune teller who claimed to be a person who writes prayers.”

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 2023 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 20 people were executed for rape charges in 2022 compared to 23 in 2022 and 10 in 2021.

Executions in Karaj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 20, 2024: Mohammad Karamizadeh and Esmail Javadi were executed for murder charges in Ghezelhesar Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 19 August. Their identities have been established as Mohammad Karamizadeh and Esmail Javadi who were both sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

HRANA news agency which first reported news of the executions reported that Mohammad Karamizadeh was in prison for drug-related charges when he killed his wife during a conjugal visit, and Esmail Javadi was accused of killing his friend in an honour killing.

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

Executions in Tabriz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 20, 2024: Abbas Alayi Aghbolagh and Ali Azmoun were executed for drug-related charges in Tabriz Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 18 August. Their identities have been established as Abbas Alayi Aghbolagh (photo) and Ali Azmoun who were sentenced to death for drug-related offences.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Abbas Alayi Aghbolagh was from Aghbolagh village in Meshgin Shahr and was arrested around four years ago. Ali Azmoun was arrested around two years ago.”

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

Executions in Zanjan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 20, 2024: Mehdi Piri and Mazaher Ayouzi were executed for drug-related and murder charges in Zanjan Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Zanjan Central Prison on 19 August. Their identities have been established as 31-year-old Mehdi Piri from Shirvan and 35-year-old Mazaher Ayouzi, a father of one.

Mehdi Piri was arrested for drug-related offences around two years ago and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. Mazaher Ayouzi was arrested for murder charges around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

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

Execution in Khaf

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 20, 2024: State media reported the execution of an unnamed man for murder charges at an unspecified prison in Khaf, Khorasan Razavi province.

According IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency and quoting the Khaf public prosecutor, a man was executed on 15 August at an unspecified prison. The unnamed man was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder after being arrested around three years ago.

It is believed that the man was executed in Mashhad Central Prison or another Khorasan Razavi prison.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, August 20-25, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

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

— Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog