5 Executed in Qom; Mohsen Zand at Imminent Risk of Execution

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qom Central Prison on 7 October. His identity has been established as Milad Badinlu who was arrested for murder in a street fight and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

Furthermore, two men were executed at the prison on 10 October. Their identities have been established as Shahin Dehghani and Afghan national Abdolghader (surname unknown) who were both on death row for murder.

On 16 October, two other men were executed at the prison. One of the men has been identified as Mohsen Khodabandehlu. The second man who was an Afghan national has not been identified at the time of writing. They were also sentenced to qisas for murder.

A sixth man named Mohsen Zand was transferred to pre-execution cells and is scheduled to be hanged if the victim’s family do not change their mind.

At the time of writing, their executions have 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.