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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – At least five men including two Kurdish minorities were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Ghezelhesar Prison. Mehran Nasrizar, Kourosh Jalili, Reza Miri, Sajad Moradi and Gholamabbas Cheraghian’s executions took place on Monday and Tuesday.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least two men were hanged in Ghezelhesar prison on 12 May 2025. Their identities have been established as Mehran Nasrizar (top photo), a 34-year-old Kurdish man from Sanandaj and Kourosh Jalili. They were both sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder in separate cases.
Informed sources told IHRNGO that Mehran was denied a last family visit with his family.
At least three other men were hanged at the prison on 14 May. Two of the men who were sentenced to death on drug-related charges, have been identified as Reza Miri (bottom photo), a 32-year-old Kurdish man from Harsin and Sajad Moradi. Reza was arrested four years ago. The third man has been identified as Gholamabbas Cheraghian who was on death row for murder.
At the time of writing, only one of the five executions has been reported by official sources. It appears to be the execution of Gholamabbas Cheraghian.
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 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 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.
In the first four months of 2025, at least 153 people were executed for murder charges in Iran, per IHRNGO data.
