Sina Bahrami and Farzad Sobhani Hanged for Murder in Urmia

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Urmia (Darya) Central Prison on 29 July 2026. Their identities have been established as Sina Bahrami (right photo), a Turkic Azerbaijani citizen and Farzad Sobhani (left photo), a Kurdish citizen, who were both just over 18 at the time of arrest and from Naghadeh. They were executed at 22.

They were arrested three years ago in separate cases and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court and transferred from Naghadeh Prison for the implementation of their sentence.

An informed source told IHRNGO: "Farzad was a shepherd and had been given a hunting rifle to protect the herd. One evening, he noticed something attacking the herd and fired at it, believing it was a wild animal. However, when he approached the spot, he realised that the target of the shot was unfortunately a human being. After the incident, he surrendered himself to authorities, but ultimately his defence was not accepted."

At the time of writing, their executions have 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. 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.