Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 June 2026: Mohammadreza Goshoul, Fariborz Jafari, Hamidreza Afsharipour, Massoud Asgari and Peyman Shahkarami, five men on death row for separate murder and drug-related cases, were executed in Isfahan Central Prison.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, three men were hanged in Isfahan (Dastgerd) Central Prison on 15 June 2026. They were transferred to the pre-execution solitary confinement cells on 13 June. Two of the men who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder have been identified as Mohammadreza Goshoul (known as Mohammadreza Lorchi, middle photo), a 49-year-old father of two from Isfahan and 27-year-old Fariborz Jafari (right photo) from Khomeini Shahr (Sadeh). Mohammadreza was arrested 12 years ago.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohammadreza had been held in Ward 8 of the prison for 12 years. Fariborz had been detained in Najafabad Prison and was transferred to Dastgerd prison for execution.”
The third man has been identified as Hamidreza Afsharipour, a 51-year-old father of three from Fouman. He was arrested around two years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.
Two other men were hanged at the prison on 13 June. They have been identified as Massoud Asgari (right photo), a 40-year-old father from Dehpialeh (Shiraz) and Peyman Shahkarami from Khorramabad.
Massoud was arrested five years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges and Peyman was sentenced to qisas for murder.
At the time of writing, none of their executions have 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. In March 2026, the indicative diya was set at 2.1 billion tomans (approx. €10,700) for a Muslim man and 1.05 billion tomans (€5,350) for a Muslim woman, a 75% increase compared to the previous year. 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.