Zakaria Khezrnejad Hanged Murder in Maku

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 11 June 2026: Zakaria Khezrnejad, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Maku Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Maku Prison (West Azerbaijan province) on 10 June 2026. His identity has been established as Zakaria Khezrnejad, a 35-year-old man from Maku who was Azeri-Turkish. He was arrested around five years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

“Zakaria was accused of murdering a Kurdish citizen during a group brawl. Though there were four defendants in the case, Zakaria was the only one sentenced to qisas and executed,” an informed source told IHRNGO.

At the time of writing, 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 circumstances 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. In March 2026, the indicative diya was set at 2.1 billion tomans (approx. €10,700) for a Muslim man and 1.05 billion tomans (€5,350) for a Muslim woman, a 75% increase compared to the previous year. 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.