Iran Human Rights

State media reported the execution of Arvin Ghahremani, a Jewish-Iranian man on death row for a murder he was accused of committing at 18. Per informed IHRNGO sources, he was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison.

Iran Human Rights condemns Arvin Ghahremani’s execution in the strongest terms and considers the hasty execution of this Jewish prisoner to be a form of retaliation during a time of escalated tensions with Israel.

IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiri-Moghadam said: "In the midst of the threats of war with Israel, the Islamic Republic executed Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian-Jewish citizen, today. Like many of those sentenced to qisas, Arvin's case and the judicial process had significant flaws. However, in addition to this, Arvin was a Jew, and the institutionalised anti-Semitism in the Islamic Republic undoubtedly played a crucial role in the implementation of his sentence."

According to Mizan, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary news agency, Arvin Ghahremani a 20-year-old Jewish man, was executed at an undisclosed location on 4th November. Arvin was arrested for a murder he was accused of committing during a group fight in the Ferdowsi neighbourhood of Kermanshah when he was 18 years of age and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court. Per informed IHRNGO sources, he was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Arvin’s religion was initially cited as Shia Muslim in the case and the victim’s family agreed to accept diya but changed their mind and insisted on his execution when they discovered that he was Jewish.”

According to his family, when the victim attacked Arvin with a cold weapon, he took the weapon and defended himself. Arvin did everything to save his life after injuring him but the victim died after medical assistance was delayed in reaching him. At trial, Arvin’s court-appointed lawyer did not effectively defend his client for unknown reasons and his right to self-defence was not properly presented in the case. His appeal was also rejected twice without serious consideration and many important events leading to the stabbing were ignored.

Arvin was previously transferred for execution in May.

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.