Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 9 July 2026: Hossein Vahidpour and Farshad Pahlevani, two men on death row for the same murder, were executed in Semnan Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Semnan Central Prison on 16 June 2026. Their identities have been established as 42-year-old Hossein Vahidpour and 26-year-old Farshad Pahlevani, two Semnan natives. They were arrested in October 2021 and sentenced to qisas(retribution-in-kind) for murder.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Hossein and Farshad worked at a poultry farm owned by Farshad’s father. They were arrested for murdering their friend, Alireza, at work. The incident occurred on suspicion that the victim had harassed Hossein’s sister. However, they later realised that Alireza had no relationship whatsoever with Hossein’s sister and that they had, in fact, been mistaken. Their families offered 35 billion tomans to the victim’s family as blood money, but the next of kin absolutely refused to forgo their right to execution as retribution.”
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 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. 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.