2 Women and 2 Men Executed in Ilam

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two women and two men were executed in Ilam Central Prison on 3rd December. The two women have been identified as 50-year-old Farideh Jafarzadeh from Ilam and 60-year-old Alieh Kavarizadeh from Dehloran.

The identities of the two men have been established as 55-year-old Hassan Hassanbeigi (left photo) from Sarab and 60-year-old Abdolvahab Babakhanian (right photo) from Ilam.

They were all sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court in separate cases.

At the time of writing, none of their executions have been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Iran executes the highest number of women globally. In 2023, at least 22 women were executed for drug-related, murder and security-related charges in Iran. Farideh Jafarzadeh and Alieh Kavarizadeh are the 27th and 28th women to be executed in 2024.

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.