Group Hanging of Three Men Including Two Afghan Nationals in Mashhad

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 2 September 2026. Their identities have been established as 22-year-old Omid Rakhshani (left photo) from Mashhad, 52-year-old Ansar Nami (right photo) and 46-year-old Nazif Rasoulkhandeh who were both Afghan nationals from Taleghan in Takhar province.

Omid was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) murder by the Criminal Court.

The two Afghan nationals were arrested in a joint case around two years ago. Per informed sources, they were accused of killing two individuals with a shovel on a building site. Their executions were carried out without prior notice, depriving them of last family visits.

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 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.