3 Men Executed for Murder in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were executed in Shiraz Central Prison (Adel Abad) on 21 April. Their identities have been established as 49-year-old Hossein Tavana Kodiani, 43-year-old Taleb Akbari and 43-year-old Reza Masrour. They were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder in separate cases.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Hossein was arrested for a murder during a fight four years ago. He was transferred for execution from Ward 10. Taleb was also arrested for a murder during a fight three years ago and was transferred to the gallows from Ward 4. Reza Masrour was a father of two who was transferred from Ward 10. He was a farmer who’d been accused of committing murder during a fight over farm land.”

At the time of writing, none of their executions have 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.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.