Iran | Danial Jahanian Wrongfully Hanged for Murder of Policeman in Bandar Abbas

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 13 October 2026: Danial Jahanian, a man wrongfully convicted of murder, was executed in Bandar Abbas Central Prison. While state media portrayed the incident as an intentional ramming attack, official court records and other evidence obtained by IHRNGO show that plainclothes officers shot Danial through both legs, rendering him unconscious prior to collision, and that the officer's fatal injuries were caused by a secondary vehicle.

The judiciary’s Mizan News Agency announced the execution of an unnamed man for the murder of police officer First Sergeant Reza Ehterami on 11 October 2026. IHRNGO has established his identity as Danial Jahanian, a 37-year-old man from Yazd, and the location of his execution as Bandar Abbas Central Prison.

An informed source told IHRNGO: "Danial Jahanian was single and held a bachelor's degree in computer science. Prior to his arrest, he worked in technical services and mobile phone repair, as well as at the Shams Steel Company, and had been in detention for approximately over four years."

State media framed the 16 May 2022 incident as an intentional ramming attack by fuel smugglers. However, court documents, expert reports, and other evidence obtained by IHRNGO demonstrate that plainclothes officers opened fire head-on through Danial's car bonnet, shooting him in both legs and causing him to lose consciousness prior to the collision. Furthermore, forensic medical findings establish that the officer died from brain tissue crushing caused by a secondary Mercedes-Benz vehicle running over him on the road, an element police authorities actively attempted to cover up through white-out document tampering.

In court, Danial stated: “I do not remember because I lost consciousness, and up until that point I remember that I did not strike anyone. After that I remember nothing because the car was not under my control. Nor did I resist arrest, [I wanted to] see what had happened; as soon as I arrived, they shot at me.”

Official court extracts from Branch 1 of Criminal Court 1 confirm that officers operated in plainclothes using an unmarked civilian vehicle. Photographs of the impounded car reveal a direct bullet entry hole in the bonnet, while hospital photographs confirm severe gunshot fractures and surgical fixators on both of Danial's legs. In an official report dated 30 March 2024, a five-member panel from the Fars Province Association of Official Court Experts concluded that the head-on gunfire and leg wounds rendered Danial unconscious, stripping him of vehicle control before impact. The medical examiner's report attributed death to crushed brain tissue, which page 9 of the technical expert report notes requires heavy tyre pressure directly over the skull. Written court judgments confirm a white Mercedes-Benz struck the officer after he fell, dragging his body and leaving bloodstained tyre tracks, yet Branch 1 of Criminal Court 1 recorded that page 256 of the police intelligence report was physically white-out redacted to obscure this secondary collision.

Describing Danial's treatment during detention, an informed source stated: "They shot Danial in both his legs without any reason. They destroyed both his legs, kept him in prison, and then, with legs full of infection, they hung him at the gallows." Regarding the appeals made directly to judicial officials in Bandar Abbas, an informed source recalled: "His family went to Bandar Abbas, begged them, fell at their feet, and said: 'For God's sake, Danial is innocent, conduct an investigation, see for yourselves. If he had the smallest issue, hang him yourselves, but not without reason!'”

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, October 13, 2026

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

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

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