Iran Executions: Man Hanged at Zanjan Prison

According to IHR sources, a 34-year old man from Tabriz city of Iran was hanged on the morning of Wednesday, March 20, 2019. The prisoner, identified as Reza Akbari, was in prison for six years and was transferred to the solitary confinement two days before the execution.

A well-informed source told IHR, “He has been told that he is going to be transferred to Tabriz Prison. But it was a lie and they took him for execution. Reza’s friends in prison only came to know about his execution by contacting his family by phone.”

The aforementioned execution has not been reported by Iranian media so far.

According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, the majority of executions in 2017 and 2018 in Iran was for murder charges. At least 188 prisoners were executed for murder charges in 2018. Only 33% of executions were announced by Iranian authorities in 2018.
There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.