Kaveh Rofousheh Hanged in Sanandaj Despite Protest to Stop Execution

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Sanandaj Central Prison on 18 August 2026. His identity has been established as Kaveh Rofousheh, 35-year-old Kurdish man from Sanandaj.

He was arrested for a homicide that took place in the course of a street fight around three years ago sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Kaveh was transferred to the pre-execution solitary confinement cells on 16 August.

According to reports, civil activists and local residents gathered outside Sanandaj Central Prison at 1:00 AM on Tuesday 18 August. Chanting 'No to Execution', the crowd attempted to halt the execution by appealing to the victim's family for forgiveness. However, their efforts were unsuccessful and the sentence was carried out at dawn.

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 mitigating factors 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.