Iran Executions: Prisoner Hanged at Mashhad Prison

According to the Iranian website, Rokna, a 50 years old man was executed on the morning of December 12, 2018. He was sentenced to death for murdering his wife 8 years ago. The plaintiffs were his daughters but he could not win their consent.

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 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.

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.