Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); January 3, 2026: Ahad Mirzayi, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Esfarayen Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Esfarayen Prison on 31 December 2025. His identity has been established as Ahad Mirzayi. He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 1, 2025: Ebrahim Lejei and Fakhrollah Shiruzehi, two Baluch men on death row for separate drug cases, were executed in Bam Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two Baluch men were hanged in Bam Prison on 1 June 2025. Their identities have been established as Ebrahim Lejei, a 35-year-old father of two from Zahedan, and Fakhrollah Shiruzehi, a 30-year-old father of two from Zahedan. They were arrested three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges in separate cases.

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has fled to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, and confiscation of property by the Islamic Republic. Rasoulof's lawyer, Babak Paknia, previously said that the charges stemmed from the director's films and his participation in a letter urging authorities to stop violence during protests over a deadly building collapse in 2022.

An Iranian female LGBT activist arrived safely in an undisclosed country after her release from prison on bail following the cancellation of her death sentence. Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani, known as Sareh, “expresses her gratitude to all LGB activists who accompanied her on this difficult journey to freedom.” the Germany-based Iranian LGBT rights group 6Rang said in a statement on December 1. “She congratulates the LGBT community, activists and the global community who supported the #FreeSareh campaign,” it added.

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY : United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif AT : Interactive Dialogue on the situation of human rights in Belarus, 54th session of the Human Rights Council LOCATION : Geneva, Palais des Nations, Room XX Mr. President Excellencies Dear Colleagues, I welcome the opportunity to address the Council and provide an update on the human rights situation in Belarus, in accordance with Resolution 52/29.

An influential hardliner clerical group in addition to executions demands punishing Iranian protesters by cutting fingers and toes instead of just exiling them. In a statement Saturday, the Association of Qom Seminary Teachers urged the authorities to continue executions but use the amputation punishment to deter people from joining the protests instead of lenient punishments in the law such as exile. The association (Jame’e Moddaresin-e Howzeh Elmiye-ye Qom) suggested that anyone who “instigates fear in society” -- supposedly by participation in anti-government protests -- is belligerent (mohareb) which in Iran's Sharia-based laws is punishable by death, crucifixion, severance of limbs, and/or exile.

The detention of Raman Pratasevich shows how far the Belarusian dictator-president will go to shut down protest On Sunday, three secret service agents and a Belarusian fighter jet “hijacked” a Ryanair plane from Athens as it crossed Belarusian airspace, just minutes before it reached Lithuania. The target was an opposition journalist, Raman Pratasevich, who helps run the Telegram channel Nexta, the main voice of the Belarusian opposition, many of whom are now in exile in Lithuania and Poland. This seems to be Belarus’s equivalent of a Litvinenko or Navalny moment – a message to the opposition that no one is safe from the regime, whether at home or abroad. RELATED |  Belarus reporter said 'death penalty awaits me here' — witness From detention in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Pratasevich was forced to make what looks like a hostage video, “admitting” to organising mass disturbances and appearing as if he had been badly beaten. Pratasevich, however, is just one of hundreds of ...

Mr Zam is one of several people to have been put on death row over participation or links to protests that rocked Iran between 2017 and 2019. Iran on Saturday executed Ruhollah Zam, a former opposition figure who had lived in exile in France and was implicated in anti-government protests, days after his sentence was upheld. State television said the "counter-revolutionary" was hanged in the morning after the supreme court upheld his sentence due to "the severity of the crimes" committed against the Islamic republic. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili had on Tuesday said Mr Zam's sentence was upheld by the supreme court "more than a month ago". London-based rights group Amnesty International, in a statement after his verdict was confirmed, described Mr Zam as a "journalist and dissident". It said the confirmation marked "a shocking escalation in the use of the death penalty as a weapon of repression." Iran's Revolutionary ...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of a once-exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests three years ago, Iranian media reported on Tuesday. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili as saying that the country’s Supreme Court confirmed Ruhollah Zam's death sentence. It was not clear precisely when the court made its ruling. It is also not clear when Zam’s sentence will be carried out. Under Iranian law, Zam has another chance to appeal and the judiciary chief has the power to cancel the ruling and order a retrial if he finds it in violation of Shariah law. In June, a court sentenced Zam to death, saying he had been convicted of “corruption on Earth,” a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran’s government. Zam’s website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the protests and embarr...

The clerical regime lashed Iranian Christian convert Mohammad Reza Omidi 80 times for drinking communion wine. The sentence was carried out on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, at the Prosecutor’s Office of Rasht. Mr. Mohammad Reza (Yuhan) Omidi finished his 2-year sentence on September 14 after which he was sent to exile to Borazjan, in the southern province of Bushehr.  The authorities informed him that he must return to Rasht to receive his lashes. Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence attacked a house church ceremony on May 13, 2016, arresting Christian convert Mohammad Reza Omidi, Mohammad Ali Mosayyebzadeh, Zaman Fadaii, Yousef Nadarjani and his wife. On June 24, 2017, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Yuham Omidi to 10 years in prison and 2 years of exile to Borazjan.  A Revision Court subsequently commuted his sentence to 2 years. He finished serving his sentence on August 18, 2020, and was released from Evin Prison and sent to Borazjan to serve his 2 years in...

Iran Human Rights (IHR); September 30, 2020: Shahrouz Kazemi, a prisoner on death row for “moharebeh (enmity against God) through participation in armed robbery” has been executed at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.  A video of his mother pleading with officials and people to help save her son’s life went viral yesterday. According to Iran Human Rights, this morning, Wednesday, 30 September 2020, Shahrouz Kazemi-Noureddinvand was executed in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.  He had been sentenced to death on the charge of “moharebeh (enmity against God) through participation in an armed robbery.” Shahrouz Kazemi’s court documents obtained by IHR reveal that in fact nobody was harmed during the armed robbery attributed to Shahrouz and his two co-defendants and the only bullets fired were the one fired at the shop glass to gain entry and two shots fired in the air on their exit, for which Shahrouz was sentenced to death. A part of the documents reads: “When we entered the shop, we told ...

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian presidential challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged European Union leaders on Wednesday not to recognise what she called fraudulent election results, saying longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko had lost all legitimacy. Tsikhanouskaya was speaking from exile in neighbouring Lithuania before an emergency EU summit, due to be held by video conference, to discuss the crisis unfolding in Belarus, where the Aug.9 election sparked mass protests. Tsikhanouskaya says she was the rightful winner of the election and wants new elections to be held under some kind of international supervision. “I call on you not to recognise these fraudulent elections,” Tsikhanouskaya said, speaking in English in a video address. “Mr. Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.” Lukashenko is struggling to contain the protests and a wave of strikes that pose the biggest challenge to his 26-year-old hold on power. He denies rigging th...

Asad Noor, who is in hiding, says the police have been harassing his family in Chittagong over a Facebook video he posted defending a Buddhist monk. Bngladeshi blogger and secular activist Asaduzzaman Noor, accused of defaming Islam, has claimed that his family at Amtali Upzila of Barguna district (around 320 km south of Dhaka) is being harassed by the government for posting a Facebook video criticising alleged appropriation of a Buddhist temple. Noor, better known by his nom de plume Asad Noor, has been in hiding — in Bangladesh and abroad — for past several years after receiving death threats from Islamist groups for defending a Buddhist monk, and 10 Minute School, a pro-LGBTQ platform. He has been charged under the Digital Security Act, 2018, for defaming Islam — an offence punishable with a jail term of up to 10 years. When the law was implemented, Amnesty International described it as a serious threat to freedom of expression in Bangladesh. Bloggers, social media...

Ruhollah Zam, who was accused of fueling anti-government protests, was arrested after his return from exile in 2019. Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, accused of inspiring mass anti-government protests in 2017, has been sentenced to death. "The court has considered 13 counts of charges together as instances of 'corruption on earth' and therefore passed the death sentence," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Tuesday. "Corruption on Earth" is a charge often used in cases allegedly involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran's government. It was not immediately clear when the sentence was handed down. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the arrest of Zam in October last year.  The elite IRGC described Zam, a former opposition figure who had lived in exile in France, as a "counter-revolutionary" who was "directed by France's intelligence service". The details of his arr...