4 People Including Woman Executed in Sari

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men and a woman were executed in Sari Central Prison on 17 December. The woman has been identified as 35-year-old Efat Hamedi, a mother of a 9-year-old son who was on depression medication prior to her arrest for the murder of her husband four years ago. She was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. One of the men who was also on death row for murder, has been identified as 38-year-old Yousef Satari (right photo) from Sari who was arrested for the murder of his friend over finances three years ago.

According to informed sources, the victim’s family in his case had demanded five billion tomans (approximately €65k) which Yousef’s family could not afford.

The other two men were sentenced to death for drug-related offences and have been identified as 45-year-old Jamal Asgarabadi from Sari and 47-year-old Manouchehr Hedayati (left photo) from Babol. Jamal was arrested four years ago and Manouchehr three years.

At the time of writing, their executions have not 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. Efat Hamedi is the 31st woman 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.