Borjali Taghizadeh-Amirsalari and Farshad Jamalabadi Hanged for Murder in Shiraz

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 21 October 2026. Their identities have been established as Borjali Taghizadeh-Amirsalari (right photo) from Meymand Olya and Farshad Jamalabadi (left photo) from the village of Kefri in Shiraz.

Borjali was arrested for a homicide that occurred in the course of a group fight around four years ago. According to informed IHRNGO sources, he had maintained his innocence to the very end. Both men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

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.