Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 11 June 2026: Abbas Zarei and Dariush Ghobadi, two Kurdish men on death row for murder, were executed in Kermanshah Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Kermanshah (Dizel Abad) Central Prison 9 June 2026. Their identities have been established as 40-year-old Abbas Zarei (photo) and Dariush Ghobadi, two Kurdish men sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Around eight years ago, Abbas Zarei unintentionally committed murder during an altercation. He lived in hiding until he was ultimately arrested in 2024 and executed after serving one year and seven months in prison. Dariush Ghobadi was also accused of murdering four members of his family and one of his friends on 17 October 2023.”
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 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.