Two Inmates Sentenced to Death; One Spared from Execution

Two inmates were recently sentenced to death while one was spared from execution.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Rokna, physician Alireza Solhi was recently sentenced to death  for killing his wife and grandmother in Tabriz. Reportedly, in October 2016, on the day of the incident, Solhi’s family was poisoned and hospitalized from food he had prepared, after which his wife Elmira and his grandmother lost their lives.

In the first trial, though he never confessed to intentional poisoning, Solhi was sentenced to death. This verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the case was sent back to criminal court. In the second trial, he could exact the satisfaction of the second victim’s ‘blood avengers’ but not the second victim’s one for which, consequently, he was condemned to death. This verdict was confirmed by Branch 24 of the Supreme Court.

According to another report, in Tehran, an inmate, identified by his first name as 23-year-old Esmail, was sentenced to death on the charge of killing a young man in a fight. In May 2017, the police station in Aboldazim city was reported over a fight among three men. In this fight, a 27-year-old man was stabbed and died in hospital from severe wounds. After two days of investigation, police arrested the convicted inmate for murder. In the trial, the defendant claimed that he stabbed the young man in self-defense.

In Ardabil City, an inmate on death row was spared from execution after exacting satisfaction of the victim’s family. In this case, in 2010, a man reported his wife missing to the police. After a one week search, the police found her body in a morass. Reportedly, the woman was strangled to death. The police arrested the victim’s husband as the primary suspect. The accused, however, neither confessed during interrogation nor trial. Finally, the family’s victim was satisfied to halt the execution. The 55-year-old man was released from jail after spending 11 years in prison.

 

 

Mehran Naruyi Executed in Isfahan After IRGC Refuses to Provide Letter of Suspension to Prison Officials

On May 16th, Mehran Naruyi was executed on drug-related charges in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, despite widespread calls to suspend the process until a fair trial could take place.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting The Baloch Activists Campaign, on May 15th, Naruyi was transferred to solitary confinement in Dastgerd Central Prison before the execution.

Per the report, an informed source said “during the prisoner’s last meeting with his family, prison officials pointed out that they would suspend the sentence if they received a letter from the imam of Isfahan and Revolutionary Guards. However, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization refused to provide the letter.”

On May 16, 2021, Amnesty International called for an stop to the execution of Naruyi, writing: “The Iranian authorities should grant this prisoner the right to a fair trial without resorting to the death penalty, as well as forcing confessions under torture.”

According to international organizations, considering its population, Iran ranks first in the world in the execution of its citizens. The Statistics and Publication Center of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) reported that between January 1 and December 20 of 2020, at least 236 citizens were executed. One of these citizens was executed publicly, and two were juvenile offenders. An additional 95 citizens were sentenced to death.

According to the report, more than 72% of executions in Iran are not reported by the government or the judiciary. Human rights organizations call these “secret executions.”

Mehran Naruyi, son of Khodadad, is from Nosratabad city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province. As of this writing, this execution has not been announced by any Iranian media or official sources.

Judiciary Bounces Homicide Defendant Back to Gallows

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- The Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Davoud Mir Hosseini, a 42-year-old married man accused of murder.

First arrested in 2014, Mir Hosseini has been detained in Nishapur, in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan, ever since.

Mir Hosseini must now square off with the same anguishing fatality he once lawfully escaped: the Supreme Court previously reversed the death sentence issued to him in Nishapur Public Court Branch 3, but when the would-be closed case was forwarded to a parallel appeals court in 2017, authorities ruled back in favor of capital punishment. As announced by Mir Hosseini’s lawyer last week, the Supreme Court has moved to uphold it.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. According to registered data from the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.