At Least 7 Men Hanged in 2 Group Hangings in Qazvin

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were hanged in Qazvin (Choobidar) Central Prison on 17 January 2026. Their identities have been established as 30-year-old Afshin Jabari from Tabriz, Kheirollah Goljani, a 45-year-old Afghan greengrocer and father of two who lived in Karaj, and Kamran Manafi from Qazvin. They were all sentenced to death on drug-related charges in separate cases.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Kheirollah was arrested two years ago. Kamran was arrested around four years ago. His two co-defendants received prison terms of eight years and six months but Kamran was sentenced to death.”

Furthermore, four other men were hanged at the prison on 7 January. Two of the men have been identified as Hessam Moloudnejad, a man arrested six years ago, and 29-year-old Alireza Yadegari who was arrested four years ago. The identities of the other two men have not been established at the time of writing.

All four men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

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 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions. At least 641 people were executed for murder charges in the first eleven months of 2025.