Iran Human Rights (IHR); July 6, 2020: A man sentenced to "retribution in kind" for premeditated murder has been executed in Mashhad Central Prison.
According to Khorasan newspaper, on the morning of July 4, a 32-year-old man on death row was executed in Mashhad Central Prison. The prisoner who has only been identified as Ahmad F had been sentenced to “retribution in kind” (qisas) for premeditated murder.
Ahmad, who was 27 years old at the time of his arrest, was accused of shooting one of his fellow villagers in the head with a shotgun during a long quarrel between two groups of villagers in 2015.
In reconstructing the crime scene, Ahmed had said: "Mehdi Kh had wounded my father and another relative by firing a shotgun, and they were hospitalised, but the doctors had not yet removed the bullets from their bodies when I saw that Mehdi Kh had been released. I went to the interrogation branch and protested his release, but they said that he had been released on bail according to the law! I was very angry when I heard this sentence because it hurt my pride and I felt humiliated! So I picked up my gun and asked one of my relatives to take me to the village in a car, and came across Mehdi Kh on the way and in my anger, I shot him but if he had only been kept in prison for 10 or 20 days, I would have cooled off and this would not have happened. ."
According to Iran Human Rights Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, at least 225 of the 280 of those executed in 2019 were charged with "premeditated murder."
As there are no legal distinctions made between murder and manslaughter, whether voluntary or involuntary in Iran, those charged under the umbrella term of “premeditated murder” will receive the death penalty regardless of intent (mens rea) and the circumstances.