Kurdish Sirwan Abubakri Executed in Mahabad

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Mahabad Prison on 29 August. His identity has been established as 35-year-old Sirwan Abubakri who was on death row for murder.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Sirwan Abubakri was from Sardasht and a father of one. He was arrested for the murder of a gold-seller on 14 September 2021 but the motives were never established, it wasn’t theft. Sirwan was on the run before being arrested on 20 September 2021.”

At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

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. Crucially, while an indicative amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money.

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.