Iran | Executions in Bandar Abbas, Hamedan, Semnan, Borujerd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 19, 2025: Ezatollah Arab, Moein Arab and Abdolbari Jahani, three Afghan nationals on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Bandar Abbas Central Prison.

According to Haalvsh, an Afghan man was hanged in Bandar Abbas Central Prison on 25 February 2025. His identity has been reported as Abdolbari Jahani who was on death row for drug-related offences.

Two other Afghan men were hanged at the prison on 26 February. Their identities have been reported as Ezatollah Arab and Moein Arab, who were arrested at a checkpoint over three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges in a joint case by the Revolutionary Court.

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 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 503 people were executed for drug-related charges, of which only under 3% were announced by official sources. 17% of all drug-related executions in 2024 were Baluch minorities while they represent 2-6% of Iran’s population.

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 Hamedan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 19, 2025 Yaser Jahanbani, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Hamedan Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Hamedan Central Prison on 16 March 2025. His identity has been established as Yaser Jahanbani from Hamedan who was arrested for drug-related offences and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court.

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

Executions in Semnan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 19, 2025: Morteza Kazemzadeh and Mohammadreza Basiri, two men on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Semnan Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Semnan Central Prison on 13 March 2025. Their identities have been established as 30-year-old Morteza Kazemzadeh from a village in Semnan and 27-year-old Mohammadreza Basiri from Shahroud. They were sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Morteza was arrested for drug offences around three years ago. He was a labourer prior to his arrest and had two children, he couldn’t make ends meet with his wages. He always said ‘I worked so I wouldn’t feel ashamed in front of my wife and children, I wanted to earn money so I could buy a bicycle for my son.’ He tried to sell drugs and was arrested that first time and sentenced to death.”

“Mohammadreza Basiri was arrested four years ago,” the source added.

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

Execution in Borujerd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 19, 2025: Hatam Shahpasandi, a farmer on death row for murder, was executed in Borujerd Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Borujerd Prison on 17 March. His identity has been established as 44-year-old Hatam Shahpasandi from Doroud who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Hatam was arrested for the murder of his friend over personal disagreements five years ago. He was a farmer and had one child.”

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.

According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, March 19, 2025

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

— Oscar Wilde

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The doctor defending Louisiana’s controversial execution method

Dr. Joseph Antognini travels across the nation, being paid over $500 an hour by government officials who rely on him to vouch for their execution protocols. This [article] is part of “ Operating Capital ,” an ongoing Lens discussion about Louisiana’s resumption of executions. Earlier this month, Dr. Joseph Antognini, a California-based retired anesthesiologist, walked into the execution chamber at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He tried on the air-tight mask that prison staff plan to use to execute Death Row prisoner Jessie Hoffman , using nitrogen hypoxia, a method that Louisiana executioners have never before used.

Indonesia | Lindsay Sandiford convinced she will be released soon

A British drugs mule grandmother on Indonesia's death row is so convinced she will be freed from prison that she has started given her clothes away to other inmates. Lindsay Sandiford, 67, has been incarcerated in a cramped cell inside Bali's hellish Kerobokan prison since 2013 where she is facing execution by firing squad. The grandmother-of-two was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle £1.6million worth of cocaine into Indonesia's capital by stuffing it into the lining of her suitcase. But her pals say she has now 'slumped into depression' as she thought she would have been released by now due to a change in the country's law.

Texas Death Row chef who cook for hundreds of inmates explained why he refused to serve one last meal

Brian Price would earn the title after 11 years cooking for the condemned In the unlikely scenario that you ever find yourself on Death Row, approaching your final days as a condemned man, what would you request for your final meal? Would you push the boat out and request a full steal dinner or play it safe and opt for a classic dish such as pizza or a burger? For most of us it's something that we'll never have to think about, but for one man who spent over a decade working as a 'Death Row chef' encountering prisoner's final requests wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman Jr.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas Tuesday evening to execute a man convicted of murdering a woman in 1996, the 1st time the state has used the method, a lawyer for the condemned man said. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, defense lawyer Cecelia Kappel said in a statement. He was the 1st person executed in the state in 15 years, and his death marked the 5th use of the nitrogen gas method in the US, with all the rest in Alabama. Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18.

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.

Iran | Man hanged in Urmia prison; 2 women, including his wife, and man executed at the prison on same day

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 17, 2025: Mehdi Faraji, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Urmia Central Prison. Two women including his wife, and a man were previously reported to have been executed at the prison that day. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Urmia Central Prison on 16 March. His identity has been established as Hamed Faraji who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. IHRNGO previously reported the executions of Mojgan Azarpisheh, Kosar Bagherzadeh and Arshad Farzadband at the prison that day.

Louisiana | Execution by nitrogen gas ‘ugly way to die’: MD

What is it like to be executed by nitrogen gas? Dr. Jonathan Groner, a medical ethicist who studies capital punishment, has not witnessed an execution using this method, but he speculates about what happens to an inmate who is given pure nitrogen to inhale through a mask. “They don’t go quietly, I will say that,” Groner, a professor of surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, told “Banfield” on Wednesday. A federal judge this week halted the state of Louisiana’s plans to execute an inmate for the first time through “nitrogen hypoxia.” State officials plan to appeal the judge’s decision, which raised questions about whether using nitrogen gas is a cruel and unusual punishment.

Oklahoma executes Wendell Grissom

Grissom used some of his last words on Earth to apologize to everyone he hurt and said that he prays they can find forgiveness for their own sake. As for his execution, he said it was a mercy. Oklahoma executed Wendell Arden Grissom on Thursday for the murder of 23-year-old Amber Matthews in front of her best friend’s two young daughters in 2005. Grissom, 56, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. local time, becoming the first inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the ninth in the United States this year.

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.

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.

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