19 August 2025 :

August 19, 2025 - IRAN. Sajad Molayi Hakani (Sajjad Molaei Hekani) executed in public on August 19

According to the Judiciary’s Mizan News Agency (state media), a man was publicly hanged in the small city of Beyrom, Fars province, on 19 August 2025. The unnamed man was sentenced by Branch 1 of the Fars Criminal Court for the murder of a mother and her three children, with the complicity of his wife in the course of a robbery last October. IHR has established their identities as Sajad Molayi Hakani (Sajjad Molaei Hekani) and Mahsa Akbari.

Sadrallah Rajaei, the head of the Fars provincial judiciary announced news of her execution within the coming days, noting: “The qisas sentence of the second defendant in this case who is the wife of the first defendant, will be carried out in prison in the presence of the victims’ next of kin.”

Video footage shows the presence of many children amongst the spectators.

This is the sixth public hanging in 2025 and the second to feature a significant number of children. Referring to the Islamic Republic’s disregard for its international treaty obligations, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Iran has ratified, IHR urges the international community to take a strong stance against public executions and intensify efforts to end the death penalty in Iran.

IHR Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The death penalty, especially when carried out publicly, is not only cruel and degrading, but also promotes a culture of violence. The authorities use these executions to intimidate people and instill a sense of helplessness as a means of preventing dissent. The international community, particularly countries maintaining diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic, must condemn executions in Iran, and public hangings in particular, in the strongest possible terms.”

https://iranhr.net/en/articles/7884/
https://www.en-hrana.org/larestan-prisoner-executed-in-public/
https://hengaw.net/en/news/2025/08/article-82