Iran | Executions in Bandar Abbas, Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Yazd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 21, 2025: Abdoljabar Jamalzi, an Afghan national on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Bandarabbas Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Bandarabbas Central Prison on 19 May 2025. His identity has been established as Abdoljabar Jamalzi, a married Afghan man from Bakwah, Farah province in Afghanistan.

He was arrested in Roudan county a few years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

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 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. In the first four months of 2025, at least 169 people were hanged for drug-related offences.

Execution in Tehran

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 21, 2025: Yasin (Safar) Hosseinzadeh, a man on death row for a murder, was executed in an undisclosed Tehran/Alborz province prison.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, a man was hanged in an undisclosed Tehran/Alborz prison on 21 May 2025. His identity and location of execution were not disclosed. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for a murder he was alleged to have committed while attacking the Azerbaijan embassy in Tehran.

IHRNGO has established his identity as Yasin (Safar) Hosseinzadeh who was 56 years old.

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. Should the victim’s family choose execution, they are not only encouraged to attend, but also to physically carry out the execution themselves.

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.

In the first four months of 2025, at least 153 people were executed for murder charges in Iran, per IHRNGO data.

Four executed in Isfahan

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 21, 2025: Four men including two Baluch minorities were executed in Isfahan Central Prison. Mohammad Amin Kolsoomi, Mohammad Naeim Daneshi and Jaber Shehkaramzehi were on death row in separate drug and murder cases.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Isfahan (Dastgerd) Central Prison on 11 May 2025. His identity has been established as Mohammad Amin Kolsoomi who was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.

Two other men were hanged at the prison on 14 May. Their identities have been established as 35-year-old Jafar Ghorbani from Kashan and Mohammad Naeim Danesh, a 40-year-old Baluch man from Iranshahr county. Jafar was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and Mohammad was on death row for drug-related offences.

Finally, another Baluch man was hanged at the prison on 21 May. His identity has been established as 38-year-old Jaber Shehkaramzehi from Khash who was also on death row for drug-related offences.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Jafar Ghorbani was arrested four years ago for allegedly killing one of his relatives during a fight over financial debt. Mohammad Naeim was a father of one who was arrested seven years ago. He was executed without his family being notified or a last family visit. Jaber was arrested in Naein around seven years ago. He was transferred to solitary confinement on 19 May and had managed to let his family know. Apparently, his family were on their way to Isfahan and didn’t manage to make the last family visit.”

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

Execution in Karaj

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 21, 2025: Maziar Karimi, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ghezelhesar Prison on 7 May 2025. His identity has been established as Maziar Karimi, a 40-year-old man on death row for drug-related offences.

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

Executions in Shiraz

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 20, 2025: Alireza Zarei and Mosayeb Farhadi, two men on death row for separate drug-related and murder cases, were executed in Shiraz Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 19 May 2025. Their identities have been established as 29-year-old Alireza Zarei and 27-year-old Mosayeb from Sari.

Alireza was arrested for drug-related offences five years ago and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. Mosayeb was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

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

Executions in Yazd

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 20, 2025: Mojtaba Mansouri, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Yazd Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Yazd Central Prison on 18 May 2025. His identity has been established as Mojtaba Mansouri, a 44-year-old man from Ardakan who worked in real estate prior to his arrest.

He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

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

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, May 20-21, 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

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

Tennessee Woman Christa Pike Survives Lethal Injection, Ends Up in Hospital; Governor Halts Executions

Tennessee unable to carry out the execution by lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death for a 1995 murder Wednesday, media witnesses said, after the lethal injection was halted for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal of what would have been the state's 1st execution of a woman in at least 200 years. Pike, 50, had been scheduled for execution for a killing she committed at age 18 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling that stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start. Officials then attempted to go ahead with it as planned.

Florida | He executed death row prisoners. Then they came back to haunt him

Dunnellon, Florida—Every night, one of the men Ron McAndrew killed would sit at the foot of his bed and stare, blankly, into his tortured soul. He knew they were coming. He’d shift over in his sheets to make room. “They never said anything,” McAndrew recalls, his aged voice straining from the weight of the memory. “They just sat there and looked at me.” But their eyes would talk. They would ask, "How could you do such a thing?’” says McAndrew. “You always claimed to be a good person. And now you’re killing people.”

Tennessee | Governor permits Christa Pike execution: 'I am upholding the sentence'

Gov. Bill Lee does not plan to stop Christa Pike's execution. Pike, 50, is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. “After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said in a statement released Sept. 28. Pike's attorneys lamented the news.

Indiana plans to proceed with execution after botched Tennessee attempt

Indiana prison officials plan to proceed with Jeffrey Weisheit’s Nov. 5 execution after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee prompted that state’s governor to halt executions and order an independent review. The Indiana Department of Correction said Thursday that it remains confident in its procedures despite using the same protocol as Tennessee. Agency officials offered no additional details about the training of those administering lethal injections, the role of medical personnel, or safeguards for execution drugs.

Florida executes Curtis Beasley

A 77-year-old man convicted of killing a woman with a hammer has become the 16th person executed this year in Florida A 77-year-old Florida man was put to death Tuesday for his conviction in a deadly hammer attack on a woman decades ago, becoming the 16th person executed to date this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber. Curtis Wilkie Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft auto in the 1995 hammer attack on Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando.

Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

The Ministry of Home Affairs says discussions with the Israeli government involved the sharing of best practices in emergency response, crime prevention, and forensics. Issues relating to the death penalty “were never part of the meeting and were not discussed." SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Sep 11) refuted claims by an Israeli media outlet that the death penalty was discussed during a visit by an Israeli delegation in May. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sep 7 that a delegation comprising representatives from the Israel Prison Service and National Security Ministry made a “secret visit” to Singapore that month.

Tennessee Supreme Court denies stay for death row inmate Christa Pike

(TNND) — As Tennessee prepares for a Sept. 30 execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court has denied death row inmate Christa Gail Pike’s request to stop it. The court rejected Pike’s challenge to the state’s lethal-injection protocol, finding that her thrombocytosis diagnosis, a condition involving elevated blood platelets, did not show the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

William Thompson Faces Execution in Florida Amid Dementia, Terminal Illness Concerns

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an execution warrant for 74-year-old prisoner William “Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was released from the hospital to the hospice wing of the prison. After his attorneys raised serious concerns about his mental competency and deteriorating physical health, Gov. DeSantis agreed to temporarily stay the execution so Mr. Thompson’s competency can be evaluated on October 1. If he is found competent, his execution remains scheduled for October 13.

Philippines | President Marcos Grants Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso

President Marcos Confirms Decision to Grant Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso after more than a decade. On Friday (September 25, 2026), the President confirmed the decision during a visit to Guiuan, Eastern Samar. According to him, the pardon was officially signed the previous day, marking a major development in the case.

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