Authorities in central Iran carried out a public hanging of a man who was found guilty of shooting a lawyer, as reported by the country’s official judicial news agency. The incident took place in Shahroud, with the convicted individual using a hunting rifle to commit the crime in August 2021. This marks the first public hanging in Iran for the year, according to Iran Human Rights, a group based in Oslo that monitors executions in the country. The organization’s director, Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, called on the international community to denounce such public executions.
Typically, Iran conducts executions by hanging within prison facilities, frequently for offenses like drug trafficking, according to Iran Human Rights. In the year 2022 alone, Iran executed 500 individuals, the group reports. In a separate incident in the same year, Iran publicly hanged a man who had been convicted of fatally stabbing two members of a paramilitary force during unrest related to nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocratic regime.