Woman Hanged in Iran

According to IHR sources, Somayeh Shahbazi Jahroei (33) who was sentenced to death for murdering a man six years ago, was executed at Ahwaz prison on December 4, 2019. IHR had previously warned about her scheduled execution. According to one of Somayeh's relatives, "the murder victim had tried to rape Somayeh. When the man died, Somayeh was scared and took the body out of the town and set it on fire".

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.

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. 

Out of the 110 people who were executed in the first half of 2019, 83 were sentenced to qisas (retribution in-kind) for murder.

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.