Mehdi Brahimi Hanged for Murder in Bandarabbas

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Bandarabbas Central Prison on 11 June 2026. His identity has been established as Mehdi Brahimi who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mehdi Brahimi, a policeman in Bandarabbas, was arrested approximately seven years ago for a murder committed while on duty. The charges stemmed from an incident during a deployment in which Brahimi encountered an unarmed man involved in a domestic dispute and opened fire on him, causing his death. Despite extensive efforts by both the judiciary and the police force over the years, which included offering to pay several times the standard blood money (diya), the victim's family consistently refused and demanded execution.”

At the time of writing, his execution has only been reported by local Telegram channels.

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. In March 2026, the indicative diya was set at 2.1 billion tomans (approx. €10,700) for a Muslim man and 1.05 billion tomans (€5,350) for a Muslim woman, a 75% increase compared to the previous year. 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.