13 September 2021 :
Ali Mardan Boland Gerami was executed in Yasuj Prison on September 8.
He was sentenced for murder through a qassameh ceremony.
According to HRANA news agency which first published the news, Gerami was sentenced based on “Qassameh”, an accepted form of proof of guilt within Iran’s legal system based solely on relatives’ oaths.
Mr. Gerami was sentenced to death for murdering his wife, and, while the court did not find adequate evidence, it made the ruling based on the swearing of the wife’s family. Gerami was arrested four years ago for the murder of his wife.
According to an informed source, his wife had died in her sleep around four years ago. After being transferred to the hospital, her time of death was determined as an hour earlier. According to the forensic pathologist, the cause of death was internal bleeding and there was a 50% chance that it was due to being beaten, but there was no sign of force on the body.
However, the judge at the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Provincial Criminal Court determined that there was los. Los can be declared in cases of qisas for murder or injury where there is insufficient evidence but the judge still has doubt either because he believes the victim to be guilty or due to circumstantial evidence. In such an event, the victim or victim’s next of kin have the right to qassameh. Qassameh is based on swearing an oath on the Quran by a certain number of the victim’s family. In murder cases, 50 male members of the victim’s family are required to make a qassameh. It should be noted that the people who swear in qassameh ceremonies are not required and are not usually direct witnesses to the crime. In the case of Ali Mardan Boland Gerami, after declaring los, another trial was scheduled for the qassameh ceremony by the judge. 50 male members of the victim’s family subsequently swore a qassameh, whereby Ali Mardan Boland Gerami was sentenced to qisas. The case was sent to a court of equal standing by the Supreme Court following a request for a retrial. The Court of equal standing then found him guilty again and this time, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling.
At the time of writing, his execution has not been announced by domestic media or officials in Iran.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4879/
