IRAN: 'BLOOD MONEY' SAVED 358 FROM DEATH PENALTY

April 28, 2014: Iran’s Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said the payment of "blood money" spared 358 Iranians from execution in the last Iranian calendar year, between March 2013 and March 2014, the FARS news agency reported.
The practice, made possible under the Islamic Sharia law of diya (retribution), allows a convict to be pardoned by a victim's family if they receive financial recompense.
Iranian media have recently published details of several capital cases in which blood money spared the killers from execution.
The most high-profile case involved a blindfolded murderer known only as Balal being pictured with a hangman's noose around his neck. The convict escaped the gallows at the last minute when his victim's mother pardoned him, and only administered a slap on his face as punishment. The blood money in the Balal case had been raised from the proceeds of a film director's special screening, amounting to 3 billion ryals (90,000 USD).
After Balal dramatically escaped death, media reported several other cases in which the victim's family pardoned the killer at the very last minute, with one being pardoned even after he was hanged for a few minutes. Another fundraising event was the screening of a film called "Sensitive Floor" which was held by famous actors and artists on 27 April. The organisers managed to raise 7,000,000,000 ryals (200,000 USD) as blood money which was needed for three convicts on death row. (Sources: AFP, 28/04/2014)