Iran News: In Iran Student Survives Hanging, Faces Execution Again

Iran gives a unique flavor to the capital punishment legal system: the family of a murder victim can pardon the accused, on the condition that some conditions are met so the accused would not be executed by the court. If those conditions are not met, or otherwise the pardon is withdrawn by the victim's family, then the accused can once again face execution. This specific provision of the law was what led to the execution of student Ahmad Alizadeh in a recent case.

Iran News: Iran’s Law Puts Student Back on Death Row 

Ahmad Alizadeh, 26, was arrested in October 2018 on charges of murder and was sentenced to death in April 2019, reports Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR). During his attempted first execution, Alizadeh was left on the noose for 28 seconds before being taken down and revived. That's when the family of the victim suddenly shouted, "Forgive him" during the procedure and sent the young man back to prison alive.

According to IHR, an NGO that is monitoring executions in Iran, the families of victims have rights under Iranian Sharia Law to pardon the accuser for "blood money" or as an alternative to some monetary compensation for the loss of life. In some cases, they may even grant immunity to the convict without pay. However, if the pardon involves a condition set by the family which is later unmet or no compensation is rendered to them, the defendant might be hanged after all.

In the case of Alizadeh, reports say that the victim's family withdrew their pardon in the end when their conditions were not met. He therefore is scheduled to be executed yet again. It is in this scenario that the intricacy of Iran's Sharia-based laws manifested into display where an individual's fate falls upon family pardon and monetary matters. Therefore, the case turns out to become one of its rarity within the comprehension of capital punishment legal cases.

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Such cases are contentious because they embody the role that personal compromise and economic consideration have in Iran's judicial system and also represent the intense, often life or death bargaining that can occur within the confines of Iranian law.