Mohammad Beiranvand Saremi Hanged for Unintentional Murder

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Saveh Prison on 22nd January 2025. His identity has been established as 44-year-old Mohammad Beiranvand Saremi from Khorramabad.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohammad was accused of accidentally killing a contraband agent while trying to escape in May 2023 after he was ambushed by an unmarked car.”

Prior to execution, Mohammad told his story in an audio from prison.

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 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.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.

Updated on Monday, 31st March 2025: The execution of Mohammad Beiranvand Saremi was previously reported by the judiciary's Mizan news agency without naming him.