Iranian authorities said Saturday they executed a man convicted of killing a police officer in Damghan, a city in Semnan province east of Tehran, in September 2022.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said police officer Mohammad Javad Rahimi was on duty at Velayat Hospital in Damghan on September 2, 2022, when the man disarmed him and shot him twice.
According to Mizan, a criminal court in Semnan province sentenced the defendant to qisas, or execution under Iran’s system of retributive justice, and the Supreme Court later upheld the verdict. The judiciary did not identify the executed man or provide details about his defense, the evidence presented at trial or whether he contested the charges.
The judiciary said the sentence was carried out in Damghan on Saturday morning at the request of Rahimi’s family.
Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about due process and fair-trial safeguards in Iran’s capital cases. They have also criticized the country’s qisas system, under which the family of a murder victim can seek execution or grant forgiveness, sometimes in exchange for financial compensation.