Ali Khaleghi Forghani Executed in Mashhad

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 5 December. His identity has been established as 22-year-old Ali Khaleghi Forghani who was sentenced  to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Ali was arrested for killing two people in a group fight. Despite being injured in the neck himself, they treated him standing up and transferred him to the detention centre where they forced him to confess to a murder he hadn’t committed under torture.”

At the time of writing, his execution has 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.