Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); January 29, 2025: Amir Fanayi, Hamid Fanayi, Mohammadali Heidari, Rasoul Minayi and Khosro Abbbaszadeh were executed for murder charges in a group hanging in Shiraz Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, five men were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 29th January 2025. Their identities have been established as 36-year-old Amir Fanayi (middle photo) and 42-year-old Hamid Fanayi (right photo), two brothers from Marvdasht, 31-year0old Mohammadali Heidari (left photo) from the Kouzehgari region of Shiraz, 33-year-old Rasoul Minayi and 35-year-old Khosro Abbaszadeh. They were all sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder charges by the Criminal Court.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Amir and Hamid Fanayi were brothers and co-defendants and arrested for an honour killing five years ago. Mohammadali Heidari was on death row for four years.”
“Rasoul Minayi and Khosro Abbaszadeh were relatives from Babol They were arrested four years ago and accused of killing a woman while burglarising her home,” the source added.
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 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.
31 January 2025 update: Mohammadali Heidari was registered as Alireza Heidari in his birth certificate.