2 Men Publicly Hanged in Isfahan; 4 Public Hangings in a Week

According to the Judiciary’s Mizan news agency, two men were publicly hanged in Fouladshahr on 13 July. They were sentenced to death for charges of moharebeh and efsad-fil-arz by the Revolutionary Court and to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for participation in murder by the Criminal Court.

State media have named the men as 39-year-old Mohammad Ghaedi Nasab and 26-year-old Sadegh Mahmoudi Baram. Iran Human Rights warned of the resumption of public executions when Mohammad and Sadegh were sentenced to public execution in March 2022. Mohammad’s confessions were aired by IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency in a video shared after their executions.

According to the state report, the police were called to the scene of an armed robbery on 18 November 2021. The two defendants are alleged to have fought the officers and disarmed them, shooting one officer dead and causing one to lose his finger.

Asadollah Jafari, the Isfahan province Chief Justice said: “At the beginning, there were three cases against them with charges of moharebeh, murder and mutilation, and other crimes (threats, use of force with weapons, robbing weapons from officers, disturbing public order and…) and they were sentenced to public execution (for moharebeh and efsad-fil-arz), qisas (for participating in the killing of a police officer) and around 22 years imprisonment (for the remaining offences) after proceedings.”

“After the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court, they were executed according to the maximum punishment for charges of moharebeh and efsad-fil-arz in the Maskan neighbourhood of Fouladshahr,” he added.

Their executions bring the number of public executions to four in a week. On 8 July, Afghan nationals Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Ghotali were publicly hanged on the streets of Shiraz. Six men have been executed in public spaces since 25 May 2023.

2021 was the first year in over a decade during which no public executions were carried out by the Islamic Republic. This followed 2020 when only one execution was recorded, which was the lowest number since 2008, when Iran Human Rights started its systematic monitoring of executions in Iran. There is no indication that the decline in the number of public executions were the result of policy change, but rather a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. In 2022, public executions returned to the streets of Iran with two people publicly executed.

Public executions in Iran, 2008-2022. Six men have been executed in 7 weeks since 25 May 2023.