Iran executes prisoner for murder-related charges in Karaj

Iranian authorities today executed a prisoner, Mohammad Karamizadeh, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province, after he was convicted of murdering his wife during a prison visit in 2019, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

On 18 August, the prisoner was transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution.

An informed source who spoke to Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said: “Mohammad Karamizadeh, who was serving time in Ghezel Hesar Prison on drug-related charges, killed his wife during a visit in 2019. He was subsequently sentenced to retribution in kind (qisas) for ‘premeditated murder’.”

Qisas or retribution in kind, under Islamic law, gives the victim’s family the right to retaliate.

According to the source, “the prisoner had previously been arrested on drug-related charges in 2014 and sentenced to death, but this sentence was later commuted to 30 years’ imprisonment in 2019.”

Karamizadeh, born in 1986 and from Kuhdasht, Lorestan Province, was the father of an 11-year-old child.