Unnamed Man Executed in Bandarabbas

According to the Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, a man was executed in Bandarabbas Central Prison on 23 May. The unnamed man was sentenced to death for efsad-fil-arz charges as well as qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of a policeman. The report does not specify which sentence was carried out.

Mojtaba Ghahremani, the Hormozgan Prosecutor is quoted as saying: “According to the sentence, the convict was sentenced to death for charges of efsad-fil-arz through armed smuggling of narcotics and sentenced to qisas for the murder of Rahim Ghassemi Shiri…”

In the past few days, three other men were executed for efsad-fil-arz charges for drug-related offences. Shahab Mansour Nasab, Samad Geravand and Saeed Geravand were executed in Qezel Hesar Prison on 20 May.

According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 582 people were executed in Iran. Of those, 288 were executed for murder charges.

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.