Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 24, 2025: State media reported the execution of an unnamed man for murder charges in an Alborz province prison.
According to Etemad Newspaper, a man was hanged at an unspecified location on 22 October 2025. Only named as Ardavan, the man reportedly confessed to the murder under interrogations, citing his motive as the theft of his invention. He claimed to be a genius who had invented a water pump that required no water, electricity or dynamo, and had hoped to patent it. However, the victim, Jamshid, had allegedly intended to steal and register his invention in his own name.
He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.
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. 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. In the first nine months of 2025, at least 457 people were executed for murder charges in Iran.