Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 30, 2024: Mousa Fazeli, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed Qom Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qom Central Prison on 30 April. His identity has been established as Mousa Fazeli who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

On the morning of Tuesday, April 30, 2024, four prisoners, including a woman, were executed in Birjand prison. The identity of the executed woman has not been determined. The other three prisoners were Mahmoud Gergij, Mohammad Shah Bakhsh and Mehdi Eshterak, from Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Aware that only the use of terror and force keeps it in power, the Cuban regime makes it clear that if necessary, it will not hesitate to kill. HAVANA TIMES – Inflation, misery, the lack of medicine, and power outages, which were the triggers for previous demonstrations, are worsening daily in Cuba. Given the possibility that these protests may occur again, the regime has threatened the death penalty for those who participate in demonstrations considered “illegal.”

PUTRAJAYA: A former construction company manager who murdered his Indonesian girlfriend by stabbing her 28 times six years ago was spared the death sentence by the Court of Appeal today. A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, in a unanimous decision, substituted the death penalty imposed on Sobri Abdul Wahab with a 30-year jail term and 12 strokes of the rotan.

An Iranian billionaire convicted of stealing nearly three billion dollars has had his death sentence commuted to a 20-year jail term. Babak Zanjani was convicted in 2016 of pocketing money from the oil ministry to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. He said he had been unable to hand over the cash because of sanctions on him.

MENA Rights Group joins 30 organizations in expressing grave concerns regarding the death sentence and imminent executions of young men in Saudi Arabia for acts they committed as minors. The undersigned organizations express their grave concern for the lives of minor defendants particularly the two young men, Yousif Al-Manasif and Ali Al-Mubaiouq, who are at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia following confirmed information that the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal (SCCA) has upheld their death sentences. 

Authorities of the Islamic Republic executed four more prisoners over the weekend as death penalties continue to rise in the country. The Iran Human Rights Organization reported that three inmates were executed on April 27 in Tabriz Prison for drug-related offenses. The inmates were identified as Amir Moharrami, 36, Davoud Namyari, 33, and Sohrab Hokmabad. 

Today is the 9th anniversary of the deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, executed by firing squad in Indonesia, alongside 6 other people. We remember them, along with every person who has died at the hands of a retributive state, and the families and friends left mourning them. May they rest in peace.

Iraq has passed a sweeping anti-LGBT law that criminalises same-sex relationships and could see gay people sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted The law, which was passed by Iraq’s parliament on Saturday, purports to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world”.

According to the Iranian state-media reports, at dawn on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, a young woman named Shahnaz was hanged in Qezel-Hesar prison in Karaj. Shahnaz had been held in prison for three years. She is the fifth woman hanged in Iran in 2024.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 26, 2024: Javad Asgari, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 24 April. His identity has been established as Javad Asgari who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

Four people including a woman and a possible juvenile offender were executed for murder charges in Karaj. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 24 April. His identity has been established as Pejman Azizi who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 26, 2024: Sources close to Reza Rasayi’s family have warned of the protester’s execution being carried out in the next few days. There has been a drastic rise in the number of executions in the past week, with at least 23 people executed in the last five days alone. Iran Human Rights calls for the death sentences against Reza Rasayi and other political prisoners to be overturned. It also urges the international community to adopt a firm and sustainable policy to stop the daily executions in Iran.

A group of high profile political prisoners in Iran have denounced the death sentence handed down to dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, calling it a sign of Iran's "inhuman nature and deep corruption." Earlier this week, an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced the outspoken artist to death for his songs supporting the nationwide protests of 2022, charges that his lawyer, Amir Raeisian, claims he had previously been acquitted of.

Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has condemned the death sentence of protest rapper Toomaj Salehi. " Toomaj's death sentence signifies the death of our vibrant movement. Let us rally for the survival of the movement that defines our existence," she said in a message from Evin prison (pictured).

For the first time in at least five years, Supreme Court justices last week issued dissents from the Court’s denial of review in two capital cases on the same day.  Both cases involved official misconduct. One alleged that Texas prosecutors illegally struck 13 women from Dillion Compton’s jury because of their gender. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 24, 2024: State media reported the execution of Hadi Mirgozar for murder charges at an unspecified prison. According to Haft Sobh newspaper, a man was executed on 10 April. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of a woman named Elham Sarlatibut the exact location of his execution has not been specified in the report. An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “The executed man was named Hadi Mirgozar and he was executed in a Gilan province prison.” 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. 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

A court ruling in Taiwan could lead to abolishing capital punishment on the island. Given strong public support for the death penalty, how will the court reconcile constitutional human rights with Taiwanese society? Taiwan's Constitutional Court on Tuesday debated the island's death penalty and discussed whether it violates the rights guaranteed under the Taiwanese constitution.

Footballer Josh Cavallo has revealed he would not compete in the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia if selected, due to the country’s anti-gay laws. It is illegal to be gay in Saudi Arabia, punishable by the death penalty. “I honestly wouldn’t feel safe,” Cavallo told The Mirror. “There’s certain countries I will not go to and play my club football or play with the national team. “At the end of the day, it comes to a point where it’s your livelihood over your job which for me is incredibly sad because this is what I do, I wake up and I breathe football, this is what I’m made for. “To know that I’m limited and stuck in certain countries because they don’t approve of how I love or how I live my life is quite saddening. I wouldn’t want to be entering a space like that at the moment. There’s a lot of improvement that needs to happen before I consider that.” Cavallo calls for LGBT support from wider football community Cavallo went on to say that he wanted more support for LGBT rights from the w

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized Iraqi authorities for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men on the same day, saying the prisoners were denied fair trial, and expressed concern that many others had been executed in secret. A total of 13 prisoners were executed in Dhi Qars Nasiriyah central prison on Monday, and scores more have been executed since April 10, said the Amnesty report citing activists and lawyers of the death row prisoners.

The death sentence handed down to protest rapper Toomaj Salehi has sparked a wave of grief and determination among his fans and fellow citizens, who view him as a powerful voice for their cause. Amir Raisian, his lawyer, said the verdict is riddled with "obvious legal contradictions" and "strangeness."

An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday . "Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said, quoted by the reformist Shargh newspaper.

(NEW YORK) — The district attorney in Stanislaus County, California, has filed new paperwork in court opposing a motion by Scott Peterson’s defense team — the Los Angeles Innocence Project — for DNA testing in the murder case of Laci Peterson and Conner Peterson. In a more than 300-page filing on Monday, the DA’s office addresses the 14 items the defense is requesting DNA testing for and why they say these have already been tested, litigated, are unrelated, or the burden has not been met to retest them.

The 39-year-old, who claimed she was under the influence of a 'voo-doo spell', will stand trial for first degree murder with a weapon starting May 7  Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a mother who forced her young daughters to drink bleach before choking one to death, the State's Attorney's office announced on Tuesday.