Unidentified 70-year-old Retired Policeman Executed in Mashhad

According to the official Khorasan newspaper, a man was executed in Mashhad Central Prison on June 30. Sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, he has only been identified as 70-year-old A.A.

He is reported to have been a retired traffic police colonel and had received the death penalty for murdering “his 38-year-old wife on Hashemieh Boulevard in Mashhad.”

The newspaper had previously reported the execution of a 37-year-old man only identified as M, who was executed on the same charge, on the same day and in the same prison.

According to Iran Human Rights’ Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 211 of the 267 people executed in 2020 were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for "premeditated murder."

As there are no legal distinctions made between murder and manslaughter, whether voluntary or involuntary in Iran, those charged under the umbrella term of “premeditated murder” will receive the death penalty regardless of intent and the circumstances.