Ehsan Shahounvand Hanged for Murder in Dezful

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Dezful Prison on 15 February 2026. His identity has been established as Ehsan Shahounvand, a 30-year-old man from Andishmak.

He was arrested five years ago sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Ehsan was initially arrested on charges of murdering a friend. However, as judicial proceedings unfolded, the murder charge could not be substantiated and he was released from prison. He remained free for three years until he was rearrested on an unrelated charge. Following his second arrest, the previously closed murder case was reopened, leading to his trial and conviction.”

Despite alomost six months passing, 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 mitigating factors 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.

13 August 2026: Below is a recently obtained testimony of one of Ehsan Shahonvand’s relatives about the case:

“Ehsan Shahonvand was arrested in 2021 on theft charges, but was later framed for murder under force and torture. After about two years, his qisas (retribution-in-kind) sentence was upheld; however, following our family's persistence and the referral of the case to the Supreme Court, the sentence was overturned. The Supreme Court identified multiple procedural flaws in the case and granted bail. Due to the excessively high bail amount, we were unable to provide property deeds as surety, and my brother remained in prison.

One of the most crucial points highlighted by the Supreme Court was the need for a forensic examination of CCTV footage from a supermarket that captured the moment of the murder. In this footage, an individual arrives at the scene on a motorbike and commits the murder. The Supreme Court had requested a forensic analysis of the video to determine whether the person in the footage was indeed Ehsan Shahonvand.

Despite this order, the Andimeshk Criminal Investigation Department (CID) failed to conduct a forensic analysis of the footage and instead submitted reports that we believe were false and failed to address the flaws cited by the Supreme Court. They repeatedly requested that the footage be analysed by the Dezful Court, but this request was ignored, with the CID claiming that the video footage alone did not constitute evidence.

In reality, the individual in the footage bears no physical resemblance to Ehsan, and a proper forensic analysis of the video would have clearly established this. He was initially arrested on theft charges, but out of personal enmity, someone falsely testified against him to implicate him in the murder.

Given that the Supreme Court overturned the qisas sentence and explicitly ordered a forensic review of the video, our family’s demand is for the CCTV footage to be examined by an independent, expert authority to establish whether the perpetrator in the footage is truly Ehsan Shahonvand or someone else. We seek only an impartial investigation and the truth, as they are convinced that an independent examination of the footage will prove his innocence and reveal the true identity of the killer.”