Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 12 June 2026: Jan Mohammad Saadati, an Ahvazi Arab man on death row for murder, was executed in Dezful Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Dezful Prison on 6 June 2026. His identity has been established as Jan Mohammad Saadati, a 46-year-old Ahvazi-Arab man from Ahvaz. He was a father of two and worked as a welder prior to arrest.
He was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Approximately four years ago, while driving with his family five kilometres down the Ahvaz-Dezful road, Jan Mohammad got into a verbal altercation with two people who were harassing them. He struck one of the men with a tyre jack. The injured man died after three days in hospital, and Jan Mohammad was subsequently convicted of murder.”
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.
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.