Group Hanging of Four Men in Tabriz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men were hanged in Tabriz Central Prison on 30 September 2026. Two of the men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind for murder by the Criminal Court. Their identities have been established as Milad Safari (middle photo), a 39-year-old father of two arrested five years ago and Ebrahim Khazali who was arrested eight years ago.

The other two men were sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. They have been identified as 47-year-old Ahmad Zivari (right photo), a taxi driver who was arrested around two years ago, and 41-year-old Sadegh Hatami (left photo) who worked as a school bus driver before being arrested four years ago.

At the time of writing, their executions have 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 mitigating factors 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. In the first nine months of 2026, at least 306 people were executed for murder charges.