Three Men Executed in Hamedan

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Hamedan Central Prison on October 16. His identity has been established as 32-year-old Hossein Karimabadi (pictured) who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “After they informed him that he would be executed a week before, Hossein slashed his wrist and was under medical care in the prison infirmary. And that’s the state they executed him in. Hossein always maintained that the drugs were not his and he was set up.”

On October 25, Alireza Janpour and Hossein Valizadeh were also executed at the prison. Alireza was arrested for drug-related charges around three years ago and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court.

Hossein Valizadeh was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. “Hossein had killed his friend over financial disputes around three years ago. Hossein was on the run in Isfahan for 40 days but returned to surrender himself.”

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to data gathered by Iran Human Rights, at least 183 people were executed on murder charges in 2021. 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.

At least 251 including 6 women and 67 Baluch minorities were executed in the first six months of 2022. This is double the number of executions in the same period in 2021 when 117 people were executed.