At Least 10 Men Executed in Ghezelhesar Prison

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least ten men including three Afghan nationals were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 6th November. Three of the men who were on death row for drug-related offences, have been identified as Hossein Aghasi, Jalil Eghbalzadeh from Harsin in Kermanshah and Faramarz Entesari from Nourabad in Lorestan.

Five of the men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. They have been identified as Abdollah Geravand, Mostafa Sarlak, Mohammad Hossein Bayat and Ejmal Azizi, an Afghan national. The fifth man’s identity has not been established at the time of writing.

Two of the men were Afghan nationals and on death row for rape charges. One of the men has been identified as Mohammad Tajik.

At the time of writing, none 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.

UPDATE 10 November 2024: The identity of the fifth man executed for murder charges has been established as Mojtaba Ghasemi.