Azad Shushtari Hanged for Inability to Pay Bloody Money in Murder Case

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 4 June 2026. His identity has been established as Azad Shushtari who was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for an unpremeditated murder that took place after a street fight.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Over the years, Azad’s family made extensive efforts to secure the consent of the next of kin, ultimately succeeding in raising 4 billion tomans (approx. €19,200) as blood money (diya). However, the victim's family demanded 6 billion tomans (approx. €28,800). Due to the financial inability of Azad's family to raise the remaining 2 billion tomans (approx. €9,600), the next of kin refused to grant forgiveness and his execution was carried out.”

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 diya amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. In March 2026, the indicative diya was set at 2.1 billion tomans (approx. €10,700) for a Muslim man and 1.05 billion tomans (€5,350) for a Muslim woman, a 75% increase compared to the previous year. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money. Should the victim’s family choose execution, they are not only encouraged to attend, but also to physically carry out the execution themselves.

According to IHRNGO’s 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 747 people including 48 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Under 7% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2025, IHRNGO also recorded 566 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.