Salar Shamipour Zardkhaneh and Ali Abedini Executed in Tabriz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 13 November. Their identities have been established as 44-year-old Salar Shamipour Zardkhaneh (right photo) and 46-year-old Ali Abedini (left photo) who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder in separate cases.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Salar was from the village of Zardkhane in Ahar and was arrested three years ago. Ali Abedini was from Tabriz and on death row for four years.”

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.