4 Men Including Afghan at Risk of Execution in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men were transferred to solitary confinement on 17 May in preparation for their executions in Shiraz Central Prison. Three of the men’s identities have been established as Mojtaba Jouyandeh, Mostafa Aghayi and Nader Ghorban. The fourth man who is an Afghan national, has not been established at the time of writing.

Mojtaba and Mostafa were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. It is not clear whether Nader and the Afghan man are on death row for murder or drug-related charges.

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.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.