Alireza Marzban Secretly Executed in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Shiraz Central Prison (Adel Abad) on 7 April. His identity has been established as 27-year-old Alireza Marzban from Shiraz. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Alireza Marzban was arrested for charges of murder during a group fight. He maintained his innocence throughout the interrogation phase and trial. He said he’d participated in the fight but didn’t kill anyone and is completely innocent. Alireza was executed without a last family visit. He’d been transferred for execution once before but had managed to obtained an extension. But he wasn’t able to come up with the diya demanded by the plaintiffs in time.”

At the time of writing, his execution has not 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.