Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A prisoner was hanged for murder charges in Northern Iranian province of Mazandaran on Wednesday.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), on the morning of January 16, 2019, a 29 years old prisoner was hanged for murder charges.
He had reportedly murdered a person during a robbery in Moziraj District of Babol city, northern Iran, on September 21, 2012.
“His execution was scheduled two weeks ago. However, he got another two weeks in order try to win the consent of the plaintiffs,” head of Babol judiciary courthouse, Fazlollah Vakili Rad, said.
According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In this way, the State effectively puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of the victim’s family. In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to forgive or demand diya ( blood money). In many cases, the victim’s family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner’s neck and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner is standing on.
IRNA has not mentioned the exact place of the execution. However, it seems the execution was carried out at Babol Prison.
According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.