Iranian convict’s life spared by victim’s family during public execution

TEHRAN

ISNA Agency photo

An Iranian man’s life has been spared by the victim’s family during a public execution, in a rare scene at a country in which at least 500 people were executed in 2013.

A man identified only as Balal, who is now in his 20s, stabbed 18-year-old Abdollah Hosseinzadeh during a street brawl in the northern province of Mazandaran in 2007. Last year he was convicted and sentenced to death, Britain’s The Guardian reported.

The victim’s family participated in the execution in accordance with the Islamic law of qisas (law of retribution). The mother was to push the chair on which Balal stood but instead slapped him in the face while his father removed the noose, sparing his life. Public executions in Iran are usually carried out using cranes which lift the condemned person by a noose around the neck in front of a crowd of spectators.

The rare scene was photographed by Arash Khamooshi of the semi-official Isna news agency. After the sparing, Balal’s mother hugged the grieving mother of the man her son had killed. According to reports the mother of the victim also lost another son, then aged 11, in a motorbike accident.

According to U.N. figures, at least 176 people were put to death in January, February and early March. Several were executed in public. At least 500 people were executed in 2013, 57 publicly. The list includes 27 women and two children.