Saeed Amirizadeh Hanged for Murder in Sabzevar

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Sabzevar Prison in Khorasan Razavi province on 15 April 2025. His identity has been established as 34-year-old Saeed Amirizadeh from Sabzevar who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Saeed was arrested for killing someone over personal and financial debt three years ago. His family offered to give their house to the victim’s family as diya (blood money), but they refused and requested execution.”

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.

According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.