Ahmad Nikdel and Mohammadreza Aziz-Haji Hanged for Murder in Dezful

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Dezful Prison on 7 October 2026. His identity has been established Ahmad Nikdel (photo), a 44-year-old father of three who was arrested three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Ahmad worked in a manufacturing workshop. One of his colleagues had said derogative things about Ahmad’s sister. Ahmad learned about this two hours later from other workers and, right there at the workplace, struck Jamil on the head with an iron rebar, resulting in his death.”

Another man was hanged at the prison on 23 September. He has been identified as 30-year-old Mohammadreza Aziz-Haji from a Dezful village who was also on death row for murder.

“Four years ago, several people attacked Mohammadreza over a 40-million-toman debt owed by his brother. His brother had left town some time before, and the creditors pressured Mohammadreza to settle the debt. In addition to hurling profanities and insults against his family honour, they physically assaulted him. Mohammadreza remained entirely silent at first, but when they attacked him, he fought back. During the clash, two of the attackers were injured: one died three days later, and the second lost an eye. Despite Mohammadreza having been attacked first, the court rejected his defence and sentenced him to death,” the informed source added.

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. In the first nine months of 2026, at least 306 people were executed for murder charges.