Capital punishment in Iran
Encyclopedia
Capital punishment
is legal and applied in Iran
. In theory the possibility of capital punishment applies for the following crimes: murder, rape, adultery, pedophilia, sodomy, drug trafficking, moharebeh (waging war on people or God) and mofsed-e-filarz (spreading corruption on earth). Various sources claim that up to 312 people were executed in Iran in 2010, the commonly accepted number being around 180. The overwhelming majority were drug traffickers, and virtually all executions are carried out for murder, aggravated rape, large scale drug trafficking, treason, and armed robbery (cases usually resulting in rape/death).
Iran
has garnered Western media attention and criticism for allegedly carrying out leteil punishments, like stoning
, and executions of minor
s, despite having signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child
, which forbids executing "child" offenders for crimes committed under the age of 18. However, Iran claims dispensation in cases where the Convention is deemed "incompatible with Islamic jurisprudence". An Iranian judiciary spokesman fiercely denied that it executes juvenile criminals or stones people to death, describing it as "propaganda against Iranian state
".
Iran is alleged to have the second highest execution rate in the world, second to China, although other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and many more allegedly carry out secret executions.
Executions of women in Iran happen less often. Four women were executed in Iran in 2010.
Death sentences in Iran are in theory legal for eight different crimes: armed robbery, treason
, murder
, drug trafficking, rape
, pedophilia
, sodomy
, kidnapping
and terrorism
.
, murder
, drug trafficking, rape
, pedophilia
, sodomy
, kidnapping
and terrorism
. The overwhelming majority of executions were for murder, large scale drug trafficking, and aggravated rape in 2011. A few were also carried out for armed robbery, and treason/terrorism. Those crimes are fit under sharia definitions (see list of crimes).
There are four classes of crimes in Iranian law: "qesas" crimes, "hadd" crimes, "tazir" crimes, and deterrent crimes.
law is the source of legislation. There are three types of criminal courts. First-instance criminal courts try serious offenses, such as murder, rape and theft. These courts can issue death sentences. Second-instance criminal courts try lighter offenses. The Islamic Revolutionary Courts
try offenses aimed against state institutions and the government. Crimes include smuggling (of drugs/weapons/etc), terrorism, counterfeiting, treason, etc. They may also issue death sentences.
There is a first instance criminal court branch in most counties in Iran, and the prisoner tend to be put to death in the county prison. There is usually one Revolutionary Court branch in each province, so criminals such as drug traffickers tend to be put to death in the main prison of the provincial capital. For that reason, murderers tend to be executed as individuals in various prisons, while drug traffickers are often executed in groups in centralized prisons.
A death sentence would be appealed to the Supreme Court of Iran, and confirmed by them, or sent to a lower court for retrial. In 2011, an amendment to Iran's "Dangerous Drugs Act" removed the right of appeal for some drug trafficking cases, instead the Prosecutor-General must review and confirm the sentence. The official reason was that due to the large volume of drug cases, it was slowing down the appeals court system. The prisoner can then ask for a pardon from the victim's family in a murder case, or from the "Amnesty and Pardons Commission" in non-murder cases.
Typically, due to appeals, most cases take an average of 2-7 years, although some may take more or less time. Other times, the authorities may delay the execution until the completion of a prison sentence. Politically sensitive cases are much quicker.
Interestingly, in Iran (like other Muslim countries), there are two types of sentences resulting in death. The first is a "qesas-e-nafs" sentence, meaning "retribution", when the murder victim's family refuses to forgive a murderer (see qesas crimes below). The other type is a regular death sentence "hokm-e-edam", for crimes such as rape and drug trafficking. These sentences are completely separate in Iranian law, and this has created some confusion in news sources, when authorities say that a murder will not result in "execution", but in "qesas".
, human rights groups claim Iran to be the world's biggest executioner of convicts under the age of 18. This has been ascribed to the difference in definition of a "minor" between non-Muslim and at least some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia
, Sudan
. Article 49 of the Islamic Penal Code in Iran "defines a child as someone who has not reached the age of puberty (bulugh) as stipulated by Islamic law and as specified in the 1991 Civil Code as 15 years for boys and 9 years for girls (but for the sake of uniformity the law treats one as an adult at age 15 prior to 2007, after 2007 at the age of 18) ."
Between 1979 and 2007, the legal age in Iran was 15 years, and those 15 or older could vote, and also receive the death penalty. It was raised to 18 in 2007. Iran's Supreme Court since 1995 has commuted non-murder death sentences to of 2-8 years imprisonment, although there have been a few notable cases where that did not happen (see child rapists Ayaz Marhoni and Mahmoud Asgari). Juvenile murderers cannot be receive "qesas" before the age of 18 (see diyya and qisas below) if their victim's families do not forgive them, and judges would try to persuade the families to forgive the murderer.
In 2008, Iran passed the Decriminalization Bill. Among the provisions of the bill was that nobody under the age of 18 could be executed for crimes other than murder (see qesas below). Juveniles aged above 15 could receive the death penalty if they committed murder, if the judge believed they were not mentally retarded and mature enough to have committed the murder with "malice and forethought" and if the victim's families did not forgive them. It also stated murderers of any age who are mentally retarded or compromised at the time of the crime at any age could not be sentenced to death (although they are still subject to diyyeh, see below). This coincided with Iran raising the voting/legal age from 15 to 18 in 2007 and cemented Iran's juvenile executions ban.
Although Iran is the focus of juvenile executions, other countries, like Sudan and Saudi Arabia legally carry them out, and some, like China, Nigeria and Pakistan, allegedly carry them out illegally, with little to no rebuke from international organizations. Some U.S. states (thought not the federal government) carried out juvenile executions until 2005 (see Roper v. Simmons
).
law, a Qisas
crime is a class of crime that receives retribution. It is prosecuted under Iran's Qesas Laws. Intentional murder (ghatl-e-amnd) is the only qesas crime resulting in death. Diyyeh and qesas is a private settlement claim between the victim's family and the perpetrator. The state simply convicts the perpetrator, which is different from the United States, where the state/federal government also will punish the criminal. Qisas crimes call for retribution, a "life for a life" (execution) in the case of a murder, unless the victim's family forgives the criminal by accepting Diyya
, which is a blood money settlement, to compensate the loss of life. If the family refuses to accept blood money, they thus allow murderer will receive qesas, meaning they will receive retribution (qesas-e-nafs) to absolve the loss of intentional loss of life, meaning they will die. Only the forgiveness of the family can stop an execution for murder, the state may not commute a qesas-e-nafs sentence. Only the conviction can be appealed, not the sentence, except in cases where the person is deemed mentally retarded or at a young age (see Decriminalization Act above). Judges may only recommend the course of action the family takes, and usually try to get the family to give mercy to the murderer. It is not known what percent of families forgive the murderer(s), but it is probable that the majority of them do so. If the criminal is forgiven, the murder charges are annulled, depending on the circumstances and prior convictions, he/she can receives a "tazir" prison sentence (discretionary sentence-see below). For example, 10–20 years imprisonment, depending on prior records, assault and battery, causing death(s), disturbance of public order, and such.
The judge may influence the family's decision, and there have been some cases where the family was pressured to make one decision or another.
If the family demands retribution, they cannot receive compensation (blood money), and vice versa.
Blood money tables are set every year by Iran's government. Blood money is also doubled if the murder is committed during holy months of Ramadan
and Muharram
, since they are seen as twice as bad.
Women officially receive one-half the amount of blood money men do in murder cases (Women receive equal amounts of diyya in accidental death cases), however in practice, judges usually would award women equal amounts of blood money, since the law is very flexible.
A hadd (or hudud
) crime is a class of crime laid down in the Koran, similar to a felony
. Such crimes are also tried under Iran's Hadd Laws, and their punishments were laid down in the Koran and Hadith
. Hadd crimes can be proven by a confession, or two witnesses (four witnesses to adultery), or by "judge's knowledge" (where it is so obvious that the person is guilty based on evidence that the judge finds the person guilty). They are generally applied for the worst of worst crimes, which fit the high proof requirements, and are punishable by death/imprisonment/whipping depending on the crime. If the prosecution cannot provide the proof requirements for a hudud crime, it could be punished as a lesser tazir crime. In addition, the court may also sentence them to additional prison time (tazir crimes).
Moharebeh
(waging war on God/people) and mofsed-e-filarz
(spreading corruption on earth) is considered to be a crime in which a weapon was used with violence to "create fear or disruption against national security and citizens." It is punishable by death in serious cases, such as if people died, repeated armed robbery/kidnapping, or acts against the state. It has been used as a politically-related charge also, in crimes such as espionage and treason. It is usually used in terrorist related cases too. The death sentence is legal for transfer of "offensive" material like pornography (but it has not been applied ), running "human trafficking" and "prostitution rings", and for "economic crimes against the state". In other cases, the punishment would be be exile (to a prison) rather than death.
Adultery/sex crimes (zina):
Sodomy (lavat
) is punishable by death. The judge will determine what type of death (in practice usually hanging). The proof requirements are the same as for "zina" (4 witnesses), and such sentences are very rare. If one of the consenting participants was under 18, the punishment is 100 lashes for him.
Apostasy (murrtaad) is not in the penal code a capital crime (or even any crime) in Iran, however, in some serious cases (or political related cases), since the judge is the one who interprets Sharia law, the apostate may still prosecuted for it anyway. and the death sentence could be given for a male, the last such execution was in 1990. For women, the maximum sentence is life in prison.
Blasphemy (sabb-al-nabi) of the Prophet Muhammad, his daughter, and his family is a legal charge in Iran, and if somebody is found guilty of that, by default, they could also be found guilty of apostasy. It is punishable by death/imprisonment.
For all other hadd crimes, the fourth offense would be a capital offense.
All hadd crimes are (zina): rape, adultery, incest; sodomy (lavat), theft (serghat-e-haddi), apostasy, lesbianism (mosahegheh), false accusation of sex crimes (ghazf), pimping (ghavvadi), drunkenness (maasti), and moharebeh (waging war on God)/mofsed-e-filarz (spreading corruption on earth). For all but the most serious cases the crime is punished through the tazir code and given a discretionary sentence.
In July 2005 the Iranian Student News Agency covered the execution of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni
in Mashhad
for "lavat be onf" (sodomy rape) of a 13-year-old boy, which drew international attention when disturbing photos of the hanging were widely distributed around the Internet. The executions of the two teenagers divided the human rights community over whether it was a gay issue; all human rights groups condemned the hangings as they were for crimes allegedly committed when the boys were minors. The initial report from the Iranian Student News Agency, a government press agency, had stated that they were hanged for sodomizing and raping a 13-year-old boy (his father was interviewed about the case in the local Mashad newspaper). Internet gay advocacy groups such as OutRage!
asserted that they were hanged for being homosexuals; other groups, in light of evidence that the teenagers were convicted of rape, emphasized that the executions were a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Iran is a signatory to both), which prohibit the execution of minors. After the international outcry, the Iranian government stated once again the hangings were for raping the boy. Human Rights Watch, while not agreeing with the brutality of the hangings, stated it was "deeply disturbed about the apparent indifference of many people to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old". Under a change in Iranian laws since then, these two boys would not have been executed if their crime had occurred today, since only murderers can be executed if under 18.
Iran hangs man who claimed to be God: report, (AFP) – Jan 31, 2011
crime is a crime that receives a discretionary punishment by a judge. A "deterrent crime" is a crime with a fixed sentence. A tazir crime is similar to a misdemeanor
, a "deterrent" crime is equal to a second degree felony, and fixed by the laws of the state. The only exception is drug trafficking, as there is no official hudud penalty for drug crimes, it is punished by death as a tazir/deterrent crime.
Crimes against national security are crimes that are "treason-related/compromising national security". They may punished as moharebeh/mofsed-e-filarz in serious cases (see above).
Arms smuggling can be considered to be "moharebeh" and punishable by death if:
1)Smuggling heavy weapons (such as bombs/artillery) or radioactive weapons
2)Armed resistance to police/armed criminal acts while smuggling weapons, or if the weapons were intended for terrorist/anti-government groups.
Human trafficking is punishable by death as "moharebeh" if the person was under 18 years of age, or if rape/murder/financial exploitation occurred. Operation of prostitution rings is also punishable by death of "mofsed-e-filarz" and "moharebeh".
Large scale fraud or counterfeiting if enough to disrupt the "financial stability of the Islamic Republic", or "intentionally aimed at undermining the government" is punishable by death as "mofsed-e-filarz".
According to Iran's Anti-Narcotics Law, possession of narcotics is punishable by death if:
1)Possession of over 30 grams (1.1 ounce) of heroin/morphine/cocaine/LSD/methamphetamine, and such drugs. The death sentence could be waived if it was the criminal's first such offense where the sale was not accomplished and/or the amount was less than 100 grams (3.5ounce), or the fourth offense where collective amount was 30-100 grams.
2)Possession of over 5000 grams/5 kilograms (11.02 lbs) of opium/hasish/cannabis (could be waived if was first offense and sale was not accomplished and amount less than 20 kilograms) (44.1 lbs); or third conviction of 5–20 kg of such drugs.
3)Third conviction of possession of more than 5 kilograms of prescription/industrial drugs for illegal use, or repeat conviction of 5-20 kilograms of such drugs.
4)Fourth conviction of growing opium poppies for drug use, or for growing cannabis.
5)Armed smuggling of any illegal narcotics, if armed crimes committed while possessing drugs, or if the person was a member or head of a narcotics trafficking gang.
Drug crimes/smuggling and crimes against the stability of the country are tried in the Revolutionary Court
system, a special court that handles such cases relating to national security. In 2011, the right of appeal was revoked for certain drug crimes, instead the case would be reviewed by the Prosecutor-General.
Iran is currently fighting a major drug war on its provinces in the east, primarily Sistan and Baluchistan province and parts of Khorasan province. Since Iran borders Afghanistan
and Pakistan
, the two largest opium-producing countries in the world, Iran is a major trafficking route to Europe and the west. Since 2000, up to 2,000 Iranian soldiers have died fighting armed drug cartels and smugglers. Most of Iran's executions are related to drug trafficking, a recent announcement by the judiciary said that 74 percent of executions in Iran were drug related. .
were executed by firing squad on charges of conspiring to kidnap Reza Pahlavi
, the Crown Prince of Iran. They were shot after a televised trial in Tehran. This case was one of the big events that turned the opinion of the public against the Shah
. During the reign of the shah, 1,000 or more people were sentenced to death for crimes against the government, mostly by firing squad after conviction by a special SAVAK military tribunal. After the 1953 coup, scores of Communists were executed. Also, many known people and dissidents had also died under suspicious circumstances, and were possibly murdered by SAVAK (such as wrestler Gholam-Reza Takhti
, Dr. Ali Shariati
, and Ayatollah Khomeini's brother Mostapha Khomeini).
In the years after the Islamic Revolution, hundreds, if not thousands of people were shot, many for "drug trafficking," for crimes against the Islamic Republic by the newly established Revolutionary Courts, including many of the Shah's former ministers, such as former Prime Minister
Amir Abbas Hoveida
, head of SAVAK
General Nematollah Nassiri
, and others. By 1980, almost 700 people had been shot. A campaign on drug trafficking resulted in the executions of many for drug possession, including addicts. Some were alleged to be regime opponents as well. In 1979-1980, there was a revolt in Kurdistan, and many executions also took place there too.
While executions had dropped by 1980, after the start of the Iran-Iraq War, a crackdown on dissidents and common criminals caused executions to increase, and in 1981-1984, in a near civil war between the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization, coupled with the assassination of many government officials, prompted a massive crackdown against sympathizers to the organization, dissidents, or even innocent people. Possibly 8,000 were shot for political reasons then, and the true numbers may be higher. Many others were hanged (or sometimes shot) for other crimes, such as adultery, robbery, and drug trafficking.
In 1982, a purge of the communists in Iran (such as the Tudeh Party) resulted in the executions of the party's leaders and other members as well. Political executions continued on a lesser scale, but in 1988, after a invasion by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization (see Operation Mersad
), almost 2,000-6,000 executions were carried out for terrorism/treason (moharebeh), along with many other political prisoners who were deemed "dangerous" (like communists). Since then,
political executions have been relatively rare, although extrajudicial killing of high profile regime opponents still happened as late as 1998. (Chain Murders in Iran
). There have been a few questionable deaths/executions even recently. Since the late 1980s virtually all executions have been carried out by hanging.
Critics of the Revolutionary Courts complained about the process, stating that the trials lacked defense attorneys, were too short (often lasting hours, even minutes), and could not be appealed, there was often a lack of evidence and convictions were often based on strong rumors. They also complained that the judges were biased, unfair, and were too rigid, and used the death sentence much too often, and that some of the prisoners did not deserve to be executed (or even arrested). Also, some confessions were gained by torturing the defendants. To make matters worse, when asked what if somebody was wrongfully executed, one of the judges said that an innocent person "Would receive a reward by God in heaven", so little care was taken to see if the accused were actually guilty of the crimes they were accused of.
Ayatollah Khomeini himself was sentenced to death by firing squad for treason against the Shah in 1964 by a military court, but his sentence was commuted to exile in Iraq (General
Hassan Pakravan
, another head of SAVAK, who helped commute Khomeini's sentence, was one of the first shot upon Khomeini's return). In 1980 Jahangir Razmi
won the Pulitzer Prize
for his famous photo Firing Squad in Iran" which showed seven Kurds and two Shah's policemen being executed minutes after being convicted for "terrorism and crimes against God" by a Revolutionary Court judge in the airport in Sanandaj
, during a revolt by Kurdish armed groups. Their trial lasted 30 minutes.
One of the most famous "hanging" judges in Iran was a cleric, Sadegh Khalkhali, the first head of the Revolutionary Court, who sentenced drug traffickers and former members of the Shah's government alike to be shot. Incidentally, he was the same judge who convicted the men in Razmi's photo minutes before it was taken. He personally sentenced 800-2,000 people to death.
After many years of not being used, the firing squad was last used in 2008, to execute a man convicted of raping 17 children, according to the Fars News Agency. It is not known why this method was used rather than hanging.
Famous hangings in Iran throughout the ages were Haman
from the Bible, Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri in 1908, serial killer Mohammed Bijeh
, the "Desert Vampire" who raped and murdered 17 boys in 2005, and many more. At dawn on July 27, 2007, 29 men were hanged in Evin Prison on various charges of murder and drug trafficking. In 2010, Shahla Jahed
was hanged in Tehran for the 2002 murder of the wife of Iran footballer Nasser Mohammadkhani. In 2009, an execution of two men in Sirjan
for armed robbery was broken up when relatives stormed the gallows and cut the men down while still alive; they were later recaptured and hanged until dead. A video of the incident was posted on the Internet .
was added to the Islamic Penal Code in 1983. In 1986, Soraya Manutchehri
was stoned
to death in Kuhpayeh after being allegedly convicted of adultery, leading to a 1990 novel, La Femme Lapidée, by Freidoune Sahebjam
and a 2008 film based on the novel, The Stoning of Soraya M.
.
A moratorium was placed on stoning due to adultery in 2002. Stoning is legal for "zina" (sex crimes), which constitutes adultery (zina-e-mohsen). Many Muslim jurists in Iran are of the opinion that although stoning can be considered Islamic, the criteria under which it can be imposed as a sentence are stringent; because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery; the penalty is hardly ever applicable. The person could also be sentenced to be hanged rather than stoned.
Following vociferous domestic and international controversy and outcry over stoning in the early years of the Islamic republic, the government placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002. In January 2005, the Iranian judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was quoted as saying, "Stoning has been dropped from the penal code for a long time, and in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", further adding that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were over-ruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out."
In 2007 and 2009, the moratorium was broken in two cases for men being stoned for murder and adultery, after Karimirad's report took place.
In 2008 Iran's judiciary scrapped stoning in draft legislation submitted to parliament for approval. As of June 2009, Iran's parliament has been reviewing and revising the Islamic penal code to omit stoning.
Sakineh Ashtiani was sentenced to death for murder and adultery. After international outcry, she was given a stay of execution. Her case is in a legal limbo as of November 2010. Isa Taheri, the man who she was a co-conspirator with (and one of the men she committed adultery with) was given 10 years imprisonment for murder after paying diyya to the family.
Two men, aged 20 and 21, were condemned to be stoned for sodomy in January 2011 following evidence on their mobile phones of them having sex with a 17-year-old. It was reported that the youth was raped, amid claims he was pressured by police to give evidence in exchange for his life. Date of execution was set for 21 January 2011.
. In the Karaj
area, Gohardasht Prison
carries out executions. Tehran's Qasr Prison
also conducted executions until it closed in 2005. The gallows are typically located in a special execution chamber or in a remote courtyard. Two days prior to the execution, the prisoner is informed of his execution date, and moved to a solitary confinement cell. In murder (or rape), both the victim's and prisoner's family are required to be there by law, in order to keep the possibility of an forgiveness settlement open (diyyeh). In non-murder executions, often the prisoner's family is informed after the fact.
The executions are carried out at 4:00 AM local time, just before the call for morning salah (prayer). When the platform is moved away, the condemned dies of strangulation and loss of blood to the brain. Usually they fall unconscious within seconds. If the condemned struggles after being released, the prison guards will typically pull down on the rope to speed up the death.
In the case of a murder, the victim's next of kin is sometimes allowed to pull the stool out from the condemned.
There have been occasions where the victim's family pardoned the murderer right at the foot of the gallows. A few times, the person was pardoned and cut down from the gallows after he was hanging, and lived.
in the late 1920s, but became common after the Islamic Revolution, usually carried out from mobile cranes. They take place when the prosecutor requests and the judge accepts that since the criminal's crimes were so terrible they "caused public outrage", he/she must die at the spot that the crime was committed. The Supreme Court must also approve the sentence. Public executions probably accounted for 19 of all the executions in Iran in 2010. , in 2011, it accounted for 5-8% of all executions.
In 2002, the "Black Vultures", the nickname of a group of 5 men who assaulted and gang raped dozens of women in northern Tehran were hanged in public from cranes, 2 in the main bus terminal, and 3 in the main square of Lavizan
district.
On August 2, 2007, Maijid and Hossein Kavousifar were hanged in downtown Tehran for murdering a judge, and shooting and killing two innocent bystanders during an earlier bank robbery. Majid was unrepentant of his crime and laughed into cameras before he was hanged. They were executed at the intersection that they murdered Judge Hassan Moghhadas in. A video of him and other criminals describing their crimes was also posted on YouTube
.
On January 5, 2011, a man only identified by Iranian media as "Yaghub" was hanged in the main square of the Sa'adat Abad
district in Tehran, where he had in October 2010 murdered a man by repeatedly stabbing him, and while the man bled to death, "Yaghub" stood over the victim threatening to kill anyone who intervened. The murder was recorded on a mobile phone
.
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
is legal and applied in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. In theory the possibility of capital punishment applies for the following crimes: murder, rape, adultery, pedophilia, sodomy, drug trafficking, moharebeh (waging war on people or God) and mofsed-e-filarz (spreading corruption on earth). Various sources claim that up to 312 people were executed in Iran in 2010, the commonly accepted number being around 180. The overwhelming majority were drug traffickers, and virtually all executions are carried out for murder, aggravated rape, large scale drug trafficking, treason, and armed robbery (cases usually resulting in rape/death).
Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
has garnered Western media attention and criticism for allegedly carrying out leteil punishments, like stoning
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
, and executions of minor
Minor (law)
In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...
s, despite having signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
, which forbids executing "child" offenders for crimes committed under the age of 18. However, Iran claims dispensation in cases where the Convention is deemed "incompatible with Islamic jurisprudence". An Iranian judiciary spokesman fiercely denied that it executes juvenile criminals or stones people to death, describing it as "propaganda against Iranian state
Anti-Iranian sentiment
Anti-Iranian sentiment is feelings and expression of hostility, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice towards Iran and its culture, and towards persons based on their association with Iran and Iranian culture...
".
Iran is alleged to have the second highest execution rate in the world, second to China, although other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and many more allegedly carry out secret executions.
Executions of women in Iran happen less often. Four women were executed in Iran in 2010.
Death sentences in Iran are in theory legal for eight different crimes: armed robbery, treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, drug trafficking, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
.
Capital crimes
Death sentences in Iran are in theory legal for eight different crimes: armed robbery, treasonTreason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, drug trafficking, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. The overwhelming majority of executions were for murder, large scale drug trafficking, and aggravated rape in 2011. A few were also carried out for armed robbery, and treason/terrorism. Those crimes are fit under sharia definitions (see list of crimes).
There are four classes of crimes in Iranian law: "qesas" crimes, "hadd" crimes, "tazir" crimes, and deterrent crimes.
Court System
In Iran, shariaSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law is the source of legislation. There are three types of criminal courts. First-instance criminal courts try serious offenses, such as murder, rape and theft. These courts can issue death sentences. Second-instance criminal courts try lighter offenses. The Islamic Revolutionary Courts
Islamic Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court is a special court in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try those suspected of smuggling, blaspheming, inticing violence or trying to overthrow the Iranian government...
try offenses aimed against state institutions and the government. Crimes include smuggling (of drugs/weapons/etc), terrorism, counterfeiting, treason, etc. They may also issue death sentences.
There is a first instance criminal court branch in most counties in Iran, and the prisoner tend to be put to death in the county prison. There is usually one Revolutionary Court branch in each province, so criminals such as drug traffickers tend to be put to death in the main prison of the provincial capital. For that reason, murderers tend to be executed as individuals in various prisons, while drug traffickers are often executed in groups in centralized prisons.
A death sentence would be appealed to the Supreme Court of Iran, and confirmed by them, or sent to a lower court for retrial. In 2011, an amendment to Iran's "Dangerous Drugs Act" removed the right of appeal for some drug trafficking cases, instead the Prosecutor-General must review and confirm the sentence. The official reason was that due to the large volume of drug cases, it was slowing down the appeals court system. The prisoner can then ask for a pardon from the victim's family in a murder case, or from the "Amnesty and Pardons Commission" in non-murder cases.
Typically, due to appeals, most cases take an average of 2-7 years, although some may take more or less time. Other times, the authorities may delay the execution until the completion of a prison sentence. Politically sensitive cases are much quicker.
Interestingly, in Iran (like other Muslim countries), there are two types of sentences resulting in death. The first is a "qesas-e-nafs" sentence, meaning "retribution", when the murder victim's family refuses to forgive a murderer (see qesas crimes below). The other type is a regular death sentence "hokm-e-edam", for crimes such as rape and drug trafficking. These sentences are completely separate in Iranian law, and this has created some confusion in news sources, when authorities say that a murder will not result in "execution", but in "qesas".
Offenders under age of 18
An issue among human rights groups and Western media has been the execution of criminals under the age of 18 years in Iran. Despite signing the Convention on the Rights of the ChildConvention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
, human rights groups claim Iran to be the world's biggest executioner of convicts under the age of 18. This has been ascribed to the difference in definition of a "minor" between non-Muslim and at least some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. Article 49 of the Islamic Penal Code in Iran "defines a child as someone who has not reached the age of puberty (bulugh) as stipulated by Islamic law and as specified in the 1991 Civil Code as 15 years for boys and 9 years for girls (but for the sake of uniformity the law treats one as an adult at age 15 prior to 2007, after 2007 at the age of 18) ."
Between 1979 and 2007, the legal age in Iran was 15 years, and those 15 or older could vote, and also receive the death penalty. It was raised to 18 in 2007. Iran's Supreme Court since 1995 has commuted non-murder death sentences to of 2-8 years imprisonment, although there have been a few notable cases where that did not happen (see child rapists Ayaz Marhoni and Mahmoud Asgari). Juvenile murderers cannot be receive "qesas" before the age of 18 (see diyya and qisas below) if their victim's families do not forgive them, and judges would try to persuade the families to forgive the murderer.
In 2008, Iran passed the Decriminalization Bill. Among the provisions of the bill was that nobody under the age of 18 could be executed for crimes other than murder (see qesas below). Juveniles aged above 15 could receive the death penalty if they committed murder, if the judge believed they were not mentally retarded and mature enough to have committed the murder with "malice and forethought" and if the victim's families did not forgive them. It also stated murderers of any age who are mentally retarded or compromised at the time of the crime at any age could not be sentenced to death (although they are still subject to diyyeh, see below). This coincided with Iran raising the voting/legal age from 15 to 18 in 2007 and cemented Iran's juvenile executions ban.
Although Iran is the focus of juvenile executions, other countries, like Sudan and Saudi Arabia legally carry them out, and some, like China, Nigeria and Pakistan, allegedly carry them out illegally, with little to no rebuke from international organizations. Some U.S. states (thought not the federal government) carried out juvenile executions until 2005 (see Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons, was a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. The 5-4 decision overruled the Court's prior ruling upholding such sentences on offenders above or at the...
).
Qesas Crimes (murder)
In ShariaSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law, a Qisas
Qisas
Qisas is an Islamic term meaning "retaliation," and follows the principle of an eye for an eye, or lex talionis, first set forth by Hammurabi, and subsequently included in the Old Testament and later legal codes...
crime is a class of crime that receives retribution. It is prosecuted under Iran's Qesas Laws. Intentional murder (ghatl-e-amnd) is the only qesas crime resulting in death. Diyyeh and qesas is a private settlement claim between the victim's family and the perpetrator. The state simply convicts the perpetrator, which is different from the United States, where the state/federal government also will punish the criminal. Qisas crimes call for retribution, a "life for a life" (execution) in the case of a murder, unless the victim's family forgives the criminal by accepting Diyya
Diyya
Diyya is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom.-Islamic and Arab tradition:The Qur'an specifies the principle of Qisas Diyya (plural: Diyyat; ) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and...
, which is a blood money settlement, to compensate the loss of life. If the family refuses to accept blood money, they thus allow murderer will receive qesas, meaning they will receive retribution (qesas-e-nafs) to absolve the loss of intentional loss of life, meaning they will die. Only the forgiveness of the family can stop an execution for murder, the state may not commute a qesas-e-nafs sentence. Only the conviction can be appealed, not the sentence, except in cases where the person is deemed mentally retarded or at a young age (see Decriminalization Act above). Judges may only recommend the course of action the family takes, and usually try to get the family to give mercy to the murderer. It is not known what percent of families forgive the murderer(s), but it is probable that the majority of them do so. If the criminal is forgiven, the murder charges are annulled, depending on the circumstances and prior convictions, he/she can receives a "tazir" prison sentence (discretionary sentence-see below). For example, 10–20 years imprisonment, depending on prior records, assault and battery, causing death(s), disturbance of public order, and such.
The judge may influence the family's decision, and there have been some cases where the family was pressured to make one decision or another.
If the family demands retribution, they cannot receive compensation (blood money), and vice versa.
Blood money tables are set every year by Iran's government. Blood money is also doubled if the murder is committed during holy months of Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
and Muharram
Muharram
Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year in which fighting is prohibited...
, since they are seen as twice as bad.
Women officially receive one-half the amount of blood money men do in murder cases (Women receive equal amounts of diyya in accidental death cases), however in practice, judges usually would award women equal amounts of blood money, since the law is very flexible.
Hadd crimes
- Since Sharia law is subject to several interpretations, the hudud (hadd) crimes are not necessarily the same in different countries, and may differ in countries such as Malaysia and Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
.
A hadd (or hudud
Hudud
Hudud is the word often used in Islamic literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour and the punishments for serious crimes...
) crime is a class of crime laid down in the Koran, similar to a felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
. Such crimes are also tried under Iran's Hadd Laws, and their punishments were laid down in the Koran and Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
. Hadd crimes can be proven by a confession, or two witnesses (four witnesses to adultery), or by "judge's knowledge" (where it is so obvious that the person is guilty based on evidence that the judge finds the person guilty). They are generally applied for the worst of worst crimes, which fit the high proof requirements, and are punishable by death/imprisonment/whipping depending on the crime. If the prosecution cannot provide the proof requirements for a hudud crime, it could be punished as a lesser tazir crime. In addition, the court may also sentence them to additional prison time (tazir crimes).
Moharebeh
Moharebeh
Moharebeh is the title of a crime in Islamic law. Mohareb refers to the perpetrator of the crime. Moharebeh has been translated in English language media sources variously as "waging war against God," "war against God and the state," "enmity against God." Mohareb has been translated by English...
(waging war on God/people) and mofsed-e-filarz
Mofsed-e-filarz
Mofsed-e-filarz is the title of capital crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran, that has been translated in English language sources variously as "spreading corruption on earth", "spreading corruption that threatens social and political well-being", "corrupt of the earth; one who is...
(spreading corruption on earth) is considered to be a crime in which a weapon was used with violence to "create fear or disruption against national security and citizens." It is punishable by death in serious cases, such as if people died, repeated armed robbery/kidnapping, or acts against the state. It has been used as a politically-related charge also, in crimes such as espionage and treason. It is usually used in terrorist related cases too. The death sentence is legal for transfer of "offensive" material like pornography (but it has not been applied ), running "human trafficking" and "prostitution rings", and for "economic crimes against the state". In other cases, the punishment would be be exile (to a prison) rather than death.
Adultery/sex crimes (zina):
- Adultery (zina-e-mohsen) is punishable by 100 lashes for unmarried people, It is punishable by death by stoning (under moratorium) for married people, or for incest. If a unmarried non-Muslim male had sexual relations with a Muslim female, the non-Muslim male would be put to death. Four witnesses (rather than two witnesses) must prove adultery, or the person must confess four times, or by judge's knowledge (through definite circumstantial evidence). If the person confesses twice and are "repentant", the judge can either sentence them to 100 lashes or death.
- Rape (zina-be-onf) has same requirements as adultery, but the only penalty is death by hanging. In cases that do not meet the proof requirements, or in lesser cases, the rapist could receive a tazir sentence (imprisonment/whipping), for example for "having an immoral relationship", or "hooliganism" (sherarat).
Sodomy (lavat
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
) is punishable by death. The judge will determine what type of death (in practice usually hanging). The proof requirements are the same as for "zina" (4 witnesses), and such sentences are very rare. If one of the consenting participants was under 18, the punishment is 100 lashes for him.
- Sodomy rape (lavat-be-onf) is sodomy rape, and is punishable by death for the rapist. Proof requirements are the same, most lavat executions are for rape.
Apostasy (murrtaad) is not in the penal code a capital crime (or even any crime) in Iran, however, in some serious cases (or political related cases), since the judge is the one who interprets Sharia law, the apostate may still prosecuted for it anyway. and the death sentence could be given for a male, the last such execution was in 1990. For women, the maximum sentence is life in prison.
Blasphemy (sabb-al-nabi) of the Prophet Muhammad, his daughter, and his family is a legal charge in Iran, and if somebody is found guilty of that, by default, they could also be found guilty of apostasy. It is punishable by death/imprisonment.
For all other hadd crimes, the fourth offense would be a capital offense.
All hadd crimes are (zina): rape, adultery, incest; sodomy (lavat), theft (serghat-e-haddi), apostasy, lesbianism (mosahegheh), false accusation of sex crimes (ghazf), pimping (ghavvadi), drunkenness (maasti), and moharebeh (waging war on God)/mofsed-e-filarz (spreading corruption on earth). For all but the most serious cases the crime is punished through the tazir code and given a discretionary sentence.
In July 2005 the Iranian Student News Agency covered the execution of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni
Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were Iranian teenagers from the province of Khorasan who were publicly hanged in Edalat Square in Mashhad, northeast Iran, on July 19, 2005. They were executed after being convicted by the court of having raped a 13-year old boy. The case attracted...
in Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
for "lavat be onf" (sodomy rape) of a 13-year-old boy, which drew international attention when disturbing photos of the hanging were widely distributed around the Internet. The executions of the two teenagers divided the human rights community over whether it was a gay issue; all human rights groups condemned the hangings as they were for crimes allegedly committed when the boys were minors. The initial report from the Iranian Student News Agency, a government press agency, had stated that they were hanged for sodomizing and raping a 13-year-old boy (his father was interviewed about the case in the local Mashad newspaper). Internet gay advocacy groups such as OutRage!
OutRage!
OutRage! is a British LGBT rights group that was formed to fight for equal rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in comparison to heterosexual people. It is a group which has at times been criticised for outing individuals who wanted to keep their homosexuality secret and for being...
asserted that they were hanged for being homosexuals; other groups, in light of evidence that the teenagers were convicted of rape, emphasized that the executions were a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Iran is a signatory to both), which prohibit the execution of minors. After the international outcry, the Iranian government stated once again the hangings were for raping the boy. Human Rights Watch, while not agreeing with the brutality of the hangings, stated it was "deeply disturbed about the apparent indifference of many people to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old". Under a change in Iranian laws since then, these two boys would not have been executed if their crime had occurred today, since only murderers can be executed if under 18.
Iran hangs man who claimed to be God: report, (AFP) – Jan 31, 2011
Tazir/Deterrent crimes
In Islamic criminal jurisprudence, a tazirTazir
In Islamic Law, tazir refers to punishment, usually corporal, that can be administered at the discretion of the judge, called a Qadi, Kadi, as opposed to the hudud...
crime is a crime that receives a discretionary punishment by a judge. A "deterrent crime" is a crime with a fixed sentence. A tazir crime is similar to a misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
, a "deterrent" crime is equal to a second degree felony, and fixed by the laws of the state. The only exception is drug trafficking, as there is no official hudud penalty for drug crimes, it is punished by death as a tazir/deterrent crime.
Crimes against national security are crimes that are "treason-related/compromising national security". They may punished as moharebeh/mofsed-e-filarz in serious cases (see above).
Arms smuggling can be considered to be "moharebeh" and punishable by death if:
1)Smuggling heavy weapons (such as bombs/artillery) or radioactive weapons
2)Armed resistance to police/armed criminal acts while smuggling weapons, or if the weapons were intended for terrorist/anti-government groups.
Human trafficking is punishable by death as "moharebeh" if the person was under 18 years of age, or if rape/murder/financial exploitation occurred. Operation of prostitution rings is also punishable by death of "mofsed-e-filarz" and "moharebeh".
Large scale fraud or counterfeiting if enough to disrupt the "financial stability of the Islamic Republic", or "intentionally aimed at undermining the government" is punishable by death as "mofsed-e-filarz".
According to Iran's Anti-Narcotics Law, possession of narcotics is punishable by death if:
1)Possession of over 30 grams (1.1 ounce) of heroin/morphine/cocaine/LSD/methamphetamine, and such drugs. The death sentence could be waived if it was the criminal's first such offense where the sale was not accomplished and/or the amount was less than 100 grams (3.5ounce), or the fourth offense where collective amount was 30-100 grams.
2)Possession of over 5000 grams/5 kilograms (11.02 lbs) of opium/hasish/cannabis (could be waived if was first offense and sale was not accomplished and amount less than 20 kilograms) (44.1 lbs); or third conviction of 5–20 kg of such drugs.
3)Third conviction of possession of more than 5 kilograms of prescription/industrial drugs for illegal use, or repeat conviction of 5-20 kilograms of such drugs.
4)Fourth conviction of growing opium poppies for drug use, or for growing cannabis.
5)Armed smuggling of any illegal narcotics, if armed crimes committed while possessing drugs, or if the person was a member or head of a narcotics trafficking gang.
Drug crimes/smuggling and crimes against the stability of the country are tried in the Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court is a special court in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try those suspected of smuggling, blaspheming, inticing violence or trying to overthrow the Iranian government...
system, a special court that handles such cases relating to national security. In 2011, the right of appeal was revoked for certain drug crimes, instead the case would be reviewed by the Prosecutor-General.
Iran is currently fighting a major drug war on its provinces in the east, primarily Sistan and Baluchistan province and parts of Khorasan province. Since Iran borders Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, the two largest opium-producing countries in the world, Iran is a major trafficking route to Europe and the west. Since 2000, up to 2,000 Iranian soldiers have died fighting armed drug cartels and smugglers. Most of Iran's executions are related to drug trafficking, a recent announcement by the judiciary said that 74 percent of executions in Iran were drug related. .
Firing squad
The firing squad is legal, but seldom used in Iran today, but was used historically for military and political crimes. In 1974, under the Shah's regime, Marxist activists Khosrow Golesorkhi and Keramat DaneshianKeramat Daneshian
Keramat Daneshian was an Iranian director, poet and communist activist. In 1974, he was convicted, along with Khosrow Golsorkhi, of plotting to kidnap the Shah of Iran's son and later executed.-Further reading:*...
were executed by firing squad on charges of conspiring to kidnap Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi may refer to:*Reza Shah , aka Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Persia from 1925 until 1935 and Shah of Iran from 1935 until 1941* Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, son of Reza Shah...
, the Crown Prince of Iran. They were shot after a televised trial in Tehran. This case was one of the big events that turned the opinion of the public against the Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
. During the reign of the shah, 1,000 or more people were sentenced to death for crimes against the government, mostly by firing squad after conviction by a special SAVAK military tribunal. After the 1953 coup, scores of Communists were executed. Also, many known people and dissidents had also died under suspicious circumstances, and were possibly murdered by SAVAK (such as wrestler Gholam-Reza Takhti
Gholamreza Takhti
Gholamreza Takhti is the most famous wrestler in Iranian history. He was most famous for his chivalrous behavior and sportsmanship, and he continues to symbolize the essence of sport to the Iranian people.- Early life :...
, Dr. Ali Shariati
Ali Shariati
Ali Shariati was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist, who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century and has been called the 'ideologue of the Iranian Revolution'.-Biography:Ali....
, and Ayatollah Khomeini's brother Mostapha Khomeini).
In the years after the Islamic Revolution, hundreds, if not thousands of people were shot, many for "drug trafficking," for crimes against the Islamic Republic by the newly established Revolutionary Courts, including many of the Shah's former ministers, such as former Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Amir Abbas Hoveida
Amir Abbas Hoveida
Amir-Abbas Hoveyda, was an Iranian economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran from January 27, 1965 to August 7, 1977. He was prime minister for 13 years and is the longest serving prime minister in Iran's history. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance...
, head of SAVAK
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
General Nematollah Nassiri
Nematollah Nassiri
General Nematollah Nassiri , was the director of SAVAK, the Iranian intelligence agency during the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah. A personal friend of the Shah, he had gained notoriety for removing democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh from power...
, and others. By 1980, almost 700 people had been shot. A campaign on drug trafficking resulted in the executions of many for drug possession, including addicts. Some were alleged to be regime opponents as well. In 1979-1980, there was a revolt in Kurdistan, and many executions also took place there too.
While executions had dropped by 1980, after the start of the Iran-Iraq War, a crackdown on dissidents and common criminals caused executions to increase, and in 1981-1984, in a near civil war between the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization, coupled with the assassination of many government officials, prompted a massive crackdown against sympathizers to the organization, dissidents, or even innocent people. Possibly 8,000 were shot for political reasons then, and the true numbers may be higher. Many others were hanged (or sometimes shot) for other crimes, such as adultery, robbery, and drug trafficking.
In 1982, a purge of the communists in Iran (such as the Tudeh Party) resulted in the executions of the party's leaders and other members as well. Political executions continued on a lesser scale, but in 1988, after a invasion by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization (see Operation Mersad
Operation Mersad
Operation Mersad was the name given by the Iranian government to its successful counterattack against a July 1988 military incursion from Iraq by a military force of about 7000 members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, armed and equipped and given air support by Saddam's Iraq...
), almost 2,000-6,000 executions were carried out for terrorism/treason (moharebeh), along with many other political prisoners who were deemed "dangerous" (like communists). Since then,
political executions have been relatively rare, although extrajudicial killing of high profile regime opponents still happened as late as 1998. (Chain Murders in Iran
Chain murders of Iran
The Chain Murders of Iran , or Serial Murders, were a series of murders and disappearances from 1988-1998 by Iranian government operatives of Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way.The victims included more than 80 writers, translators,...
). There have been a few questionable deaths/executions even recently. Since the late 1980s virtually all executions have been carried out by hanging.
Critics of the Revolutionary Courts complained about the process, stating that the trials lacked defense attorneys, were too short (often lasting hours, even minutes), and could not be appealed, there was often a lack of evidence and convictions were often based on strong rumors. They also complained that the judges were biased, unfair, and were too rigid, and used the death sentence much too often, and that some of the prisoners did not deserve to be executed (or even arrested). Also, some confessions were gained by torturing the defendants. To make matters worse, when asked what if somebody was wrongfully executed, one of the judges said that an innocent person "Would receive a reward by God in heaven", so little care was taken to see if the accused were actually guilty of the crimes they were accused of.
Ayatollah Khomeini himself was sentenced to death by firing squad for treason against the Shah in 1964 by a military court, but his sentence was commuted to exile in Iraq (General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Hassan Pakravan
Hassan Pakravan
Hassan Pakravan was a well known diplomat and minister in the Pahlavi pre-revolutionary government of Iran...
, another head of SAVAK, who helped commute Khomeini's sentence, was one of the first shot upon Khomeini's return). In 1980 Jahangir Razmi
Jahangir Razmi
Jahangir Razmi is an award-winning Iranian photographer and the author of the entry that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. His photograph, Firing Squad in Iran, was taken on August 27, 1979 and published anonymously in the Iranian daily Ettela'at, the oldest still running...
won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for his famous photo Firing Squad in Iran" which showed seven Kurds and two Shah's policemen being executed minutes after being convicted for "terrorism and crimes against God" by a Revolutionary Court judge in the airport in Sanandaj
Sanandaj
Sanandaj , also Romanized as Senneh and Sinneh) is a city in and the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 311,446, in 81,380 families....
, during a revolt by Kurdish armed groups. Their trial lasted 30 minutes.
One of the most famous "hanging" judges in Iran was a cleric, Sadegh Khalkhali, the first head of the Revolutionary Court, who sentenced drug traffickers and former members of the Shah's government alike to be shot. Incidentally, he was the same judge who convicted the men in Razmi's photo minutes before it was taken. He personally sentenced 800-2,000 people to death.
After many years of not being used, the firing squad was last used in 2008, to execute a man convicted of raping 17 children, according to the Fars News Agency. It is not known why this method was used rather than hanging.
Hanging
Iran is said to be the first country in the world to adopt hanging, 2,500 years ago. Hanging is virtually the sole method of execution in 21st-century Iran; the execution is generally carried out in prison, with the prisoner(s) hanged from shoulder-high stools, or shoulder-high wheeled platforms that can hold up to 5-8 prisoners at once. In public, executions are usually carried out by a mobile crane, suspending the criminal high in the air, or on a mobile gallows. Iranian nooses are thick and have 7–10 knotted coils and are often made of blue plastic rope, and little to no drop is given. Death is caused by strangulation and carotid reflex (where blood vessels to the head are cut off), taking 10–20 minutes. However, in most executions, the condemned falls unconscious quickly, or if not, the executions pull down on the body to speed up death.Famous hangings in Iran throughout the ages were Haman
Haman
Haman can be a surname which is a corruption of the German Hamann. It is also a biblical surname as described below. It also refers to:*Haman , appears in the Book of Esther and is the main antagonist in the Jewish holiday of Purim....
from the Bible, Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri in 1908, serial killer Mohammed Bijeh
Mohammed Bijeh
Mohammed Bijeh was an Iranian serial killer. He confessed in court to raping and killing 16 young boys between March and September 2004, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old...
, the "Desert Vampire" who raped and murdered 17 boys in 2005, and many more. At dawn on July 27, 2007, 29 men were hanged in Evin Prison on various charges of murder and drug trafficking. In 2010, Shahla Jahed
Shahla Jahed
Shahla Jahed was an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death in June 2004 for murdering Laleh Saharkhizan, the wife of her boyfriend on October 9, 2002. Jahed had been living with Iranian footballer Nasser Mohammadkhani becoming his mistress in a temporary marriage which is allowed under Iranian...
was hanged in Tehran for the 2002 murder of the wife of Iran footballer Nasser Mohammadkhani. In 2009, an execution of two men in Sirjan
Sirjan
Sirjan is a city in and the capital of Sirjan County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 167,014, in 40,605 families....
for armed robbery was broken up when relatives stormed the gallows and cut the men down while still alive; they were later recaptured and hanged until dead. A video of the incident was posted on the Internet .
Stoning
Stoning to death for adulteryAdultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
was added to the Islamic Penal Code in 1983. In 1986, Soraya Manutchehri
Soraya Manutchehri
Soraya Manutchehri was a 35-year-old woman who was stoned to death in the small village of Kuhpayeh, Iran on 15 August 1986 after being allegedly convicted of adultery....
was stoned
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
to death in Kuhpayeh after being allegedly convicted of adultery, leading to a 1990 novel, La Femme Lapidée, by Freidoune Sahebjam
Freidoune Sahebjam
Freidoune Sahebjam was a French-Iranian journalist, war correspondent, and novelist who resided in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France....
and a 2008 film based on the novel, The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is a 2008 American drama film adapted from French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam's 1990 book La Femme Lapidée, based on a true story...
.
A moratorium was placed on stoning due to adultery in 2002. Stoning is legal for "zina" (sex crimes), which constitutes adultery (zina-e-mohsen). Many Muslim jurists in Iran are of the opinion that although stoning can be considered Islamic, the criteria under which it can be imposed as a sentence are stringent; because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery; the penalty is hardly ever applicable. The person could also be sentenced to be hanged rather than stoned.
Following vociferous domestic and international controversy and outcry over stoning in the early years of the Islamic republic, the government placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002. In January 2005, the Iranian judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was quoted as saying, "Stoning has been dropped from the penal code for a long time, and in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", further adding that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were over-ruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out."
In 2007 and 2009, the moratorium was broken in two cases for men being stoned for murder and adultery, after Karimirad's report took place.
In 2008 Iran's judiciary scrapped stoning in draft legislation submitted to parliament for approval. As of June 2009, Iran's parliament has been reviewing and revising the Islamic penal code to omit stoning.
Sakineh Ashtiani was sentenced to death for murder and adultery. After international outcry, she was given a stay of execution. Her case is in a legal limbo as of November 2010. Isa Taheri, the man who she was a co-conspirator with (and one of the men she committed adultery with) was given 10 years imprisonment for murder after paying diyya to the family.
Two men, aged 20 and 21, were condemned to be stoned for sodomy in January 2011 following evidence on their mobile phones of them having sex with a 17-year-old. It was reported that the youth was raped, amid claims he was pressured by police to give evidence in exchange for his life. Date of execution was set for 21 January 2011.
In prison
In Iran, executions take place in the main prison of the county the crime took place, or in some cases, the provincial prison It is after their appeal/pardon was rejected, and after they completed any outstanding prison terms. Criminals from Tehran are hanged in Ghezelhesar Prison, or Evin PrisonEvin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
. In the Karaj
Karaj
Karaj is a city in and the capital of Karaj County, Alborz Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,377,450, in 385,955 families, , making it the fifth-largest city in Iran after Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz.) It is situated west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz...
area, Gohardasht Prison
Gohardasht Prison
Gohardasht Prison is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km west of Tehran and is also known as "Rajai Shahr"....
carries out executions. Tehran's Qasr Prison
Qasr Prison
Qasr Prison is a prison in Tehran. It is one of the oldest Iranian political prisons.-History:It was built by the order of Fat′h Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1790 in the form of a palace. It was the first prison in Iran in which the prisoners got their legal advantages.-References:...
also conducted executions until it closed in 2005. The gallows are typically located in a special execution chamber or in a remote courtyard. Two days prior to the execution, the prisoner is informed of his execution date, and moved to a solitary confinement cell. In murder (or rape), both the victim's and prisoner's family are required to be there by law, in order to keep the possibility of an forgiveness settlement open (diyyeh). In non-murder executions, often the prisoner's family is informed after the fact.
The executions are carried out at 4:00 AM local time, just before the call for morning salah (prayer). When the platform is moved away, the condemned dies of strangulation and loss of blood to the brain. Usually they fall unconscious within seconds. If the condemned struggles after being released, the prison guards will typically pull down on the rope to speed up the death.
In the case of a murder, the victim's next of kin is sometimes allowed to pull the stool out from the condemned.
There have been occasions where the victim's family pardoned the murderer right at the foot of the gallows. A few times, the person was pardoned and cut down from the gallows after he was hanging, and lived.
In public
Public executions in Iran are normally applied to those found guilty of crimes such as gang rape, murder during an armed robbery, or brutal murders. Public executions were restricted in most cases by Reza ShahReza Shah
Rezā Shāh, also known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and Rezā Shāh Kabir , , was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.In 1925, Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar...
in the late 1920s, but became common after the Islamic Revolution, usually carried out from mobile cranes. They take place when the prosecutor requests and the judge accepts that since the criminal's crimes were so terrible they "caused public outrage", he/she must die at the spot that the crime was committed. The Supreme Court must also approve the sentence. Public executions probably accounted for 19 of all the executions in Iran in 2010. , in 2011, it accounted for 5-8% of all executions.
In 2002, the "Black Vultures", the nickname of a group of 5 men who assaulted and gang raped dozens of women in northern Tehran were hanged in public from cranes, 2 in the main bus terminal, and 3 in the main square of Lavizan
Lavizan
Lavizān is a northeastern neighborhood of Tehran, the capital of Iran.Lavizān area consists of a Residential area and forested Recreation area called Lavizān Forest Park. The neighborhoods surrounding Lavizan are Majidabad, Qanat-kosar, Qasemabad, Deh-e Narmak, Shian, Kuye Nobonyad, Ozgol and...
district.
On August 2, 2007, Maijid and Hossein Kavousifar were hanged in downtown Tehran for murdering a judge, and shooting and killing two innocent bystanders during an earlier bank robbery. Majid was unrepentant of his crime and laughed into cameras before he was hanged. They were executed at the intersection that they murdered Judge Hassan Moghhadas in. A video of him and other criminals describing their crimes was also posted on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
On January 5, 2011, a man only identified by Iranian media as "Yaghub" was hanged in the main square of the Sa'adat Abad
Sa'adat Abad
Sa'adat Abad is a neighbourhood located North of Shahrak-e Gharb. It is considered as one of the most upscale neighbourhoods of North Tehran...
district in Tehran, where he had in October 2010 murdered a man by repeatedly stabbing him, and while the man bled to death, "Yaghub" stood over the victim threatening to kill anyone who intervened. The murder was recorded on a mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
.
See also
- 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
- Human rights in the Islamic Republic of IranHuman rights in the Islamic Republic of IranThe state of human rights in Iran has been criticized both by Iranians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions.The...
- LGBT rights in IranLGBT rights in IranLGBT rights in Iran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have come in conflict with the penal code, with international human rights groups claiming floggings and death sentences of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. Transsexuality in Iran is legal if accompanied by a sex change operation;...
- Women's rights in Iran