Arastoo Safarghomi and Rasoul Pourmajed Executed in Tabriz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 15 September. Their identities have been established as 35-year-old Arastoo Safarghomi and 45-year-old Rasoul Pourmajed (photo). Both were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Rasoul Pourmajed owned a café where he was alleged to have killed someone. Arastoo was arrested two years and six months ago for murder charges.”

At the time of writing, neither of their executions have 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.