Alireza Mirzazadeh and Hojat Mahmoudian Hanged for Murder in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 17 May 2026. Their identities have been established as 35-year-old Alireza Mirzazadeh and 24-year-old Hojat Mahmoudian, both Kazeroun natives.

They were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Alireza was arrested for the murder of his wife four years ago. Hojat was arrested for the murder of his friend around two years ago.”

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

IHRNGO previously reported the execution of Saeed Rahmanirad, bringing the total number of executions to three at the prison that day.

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.

Crucially, while an indicative diya amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money. Should the victim’s family choose execution, they are not only encouraged to attend, but also to physically carry out the execution themselves.

According to IHRNGO’s 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 747 people including 48 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Under 7% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2025, IHRNGO also recorded 566 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.