Death Penalty News

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages.  The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Iran joined this Commission dedicated to promoting gender equality as a new member on Tuesday, for a four-year mandate. The news was received coldly. Several new members, including Iran and Pakistan, were elected Tuesday to join the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) - an intergovernmental body "dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and “empowerment of women ”, it is written on the UN website . The CSW is a 45-member functional commission belonging to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was established in 1946. At an ECOSOC session on Tuesday, 12 new members were elected to join the CSW in 2022 and for a four-year term. 

On February 1, 2020, India may witness its first death penalty in 5 years as the 4 men convicted for the December 2012 rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, or ‘Nirbhaya’, are hanged as per a warrant issued by a Delhi sessions court. President Ram Nath Kovind had earlier rejected a mercy petition filed by 1 of the convicts. India has carried out only 4 executions since 2004, the last having been in 2015. 3 of the accused were convicted of terrorism while 1 was convicted for raping a minor, as IndiaSpend reported in August 2018. The upcoming February 1 executions in a case that had outraged India may not reduce crime against women and may, in fact, create a spectacle that distracts the government from implementing real reforms that can improve prosecution of rape cases, experts say. 53% more death sentences In 2018, 186 convicts were awarded the death penalty, a 53% rise from 121 in 2017, according to Prison Statistics India 2018, the latest available, of the National Crime...

Iran Human Rights (December 4, 2019): An Iranian woman who according to her family was a rape victim, was hanged at Sepidar Prison in Ahwaz (Ahvaz) this morning.  According to IHR sources, Somayeh Shahbazi Jahroei (33) who was sentenced to death for murdering a man six years ago, was executed at Ahwaz prison on December 4, 2019.  IHR had previously warned about her scheduled execution .  According to one of Somayeh's relatives, "the murder victim had tried to rape Somayeh. When the man died, Somayeh was scared and took the body out of the town and set it on fire". In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to forgive or demand diya (blood money).  In many cases, the victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner is standing on. According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retri...

"Child bride." "Criminal." "Juvenile offender." These are some of the many labels assigned to Zeinab Sekaanvand during her far too short life. Sekaanvand, who was executed on Tuesday in Urumieh prison in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, was rarely seen for who she really was: a vulnerable young woman trapped in a cycle of violence and sexual abuse since childhood. Sekaanvand, who was 24 when she was hanged, had spent almost 1/3 of her life in detention. In February 2012, she was arrested and put on trial over the murder of her husband, a crime that took place when she was 17 years old. She had reported being raped by her brother-in-law and tortured by police after her arrest. What’s especially chilling about Sekaanvand’s case is the number of points at which the Iranian authorities could have intervened to help her. Sekaanvand reported the abuse she suffered. She spoke out, yet she was ignored. It's a scenario that is all too familia...

"Singapore -- Disneyland with the death penalty." - William Gibson SINGAPORE, Sept 10 — The first major review of the Penal Code in more than a decade has yielded calls for sweeping changes — 169 to be exact — with a key focus on beefing up laws on sexual and abuse offences to protect women and vulnerable victims including children. On top of that, the wide-ranging review covered other areas, and most notably suggested a repeal of two laws: removing marital immunity for rape to provide equal access to protection for sexually abused wives, and decriminalising attempted suicide to recognise that treatment, and not prosecution, is the appropriate response. Among other things, the committee also proposed creating a new offence of fraud, which focuses more on the intent of the offender than the effects of deception on the victim. Two years after it was convened in 2016, the Penal Code Review Committee has submitted its 506-page report to the Ministry of Law and the ...

An appeals court in Sudan has overturned the death sentence of a teenager who killed her husband after he allegedly raped her, instead sentencing her to five years in prison, the BBC reports . Noura Hussein, 19, was sentenced by an Islamic court in May to death by hanging for stabbing her husband and cousin, Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad, whom she was forced to marry when she was 16 years old. He was also twice her age at the time of their wedding. After refusing to have sex with him, Hussein said he raped her while his brother and cousins held her down. When Hammad allegedly tried to rape her again the next day, she stabbed him to death with a knife. Fearing retribution, Hussein’s parents turned her into the police, according to the BBC. Hussein’s case sparked international outrage. Over one million people signed an online petition, #JusticeforNoura, to overturn her death penalty, also gaining the endorsement of celebrities like Naomi Campbell, Mira Sorvino and Emma Wa...

The parents of a Sudanese teenager who was sentenced to death after killing her husband - whom she accuses of raping her - have denied reports that they've disowned her. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, her father also says he never imagined that making her marry her cousin would have such terrible consequences. Noura Hussein sobbed uncontrollably when she saw her mother earlier this month. It was the 1st time she had been visited by her family, since she was jailed 1 year ago. Through the tears, the 19-year-old told her mother that she had originally planned to kill herself, after being raped by her husband. "She hated herself after he raped her," says Noura's mother, Zainab Ahmed. "She had got a knife ready to take her own life if he touched her again." But in the heat of the moment - when he did touch her again - she stabbed her husband instead. It was self-defence, her mother insists. When Noura was sentenced last month ...

Noura Hussein had no desire to get married. She was about 16, an aspiring teacher who hadn’t even finished high school. But the Sudanese teenager’s family forced her to marry the man of their choosing, a cousin, against her will. Her family made a contract with the groom’s family, and the marriage was settled. Hussein refused to accept it, running away to live with a relative in a neighboring city for nearly three years, according to Amnesty International and other activists involved in her case. In April of last year, her family persuaded her to return to their home in the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. The wedding was off, her father promised. It was a trap. Hussein’s family forced her to participate in a wedding ceremony and move in with her arranged husband. And when she refused to consummate the marriage, her husband sought the help of his brother and cousins. The men held her down as her husband raped her, according to activists in Sudan and her lawyer, who sp...

October 10 marks the World Day against the Death Penalty Death penalty violates the most fundamental human rights, the right to life and the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The death penalty is also considered discriminatory as it is often used against the most vulnerable in society, including the poor, ethnic and religious minorities, and people with mental disabilities. It is also used by some governments to silence their opponents. Iran is the world's leading per capita executioner. It also holds the record in the execution of women and minors. The Iranian regime is among those governments that execute their opponents. 120,000 people have been executed in Iran since 1981 for their opposition to the government, at least 1/3 of whom have been women.  According to the international laws, pregnant women must not be executed, whereas in Iran, at least 50 pregnant women have been executed in the 1980s.  Women w...