At least 5 mentally ill prisoners executed in 2024

Iran Human Rights Organization reported the execution of at least 5 individuals with mental disorders in the past year in Iran, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic is violating its "domestic laws" and "international commitments" by carrying out such sentences. In a report on Thursday, March 9, the names of four of the executed individuals were mentioned: Mohammad Qabadi, Rashid Baloch, Alireza Razavi-Khalqabadi, and Ezzat Seydi, noting that despite suffering from mental disorders, they were hanged in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. Mohammad Qabadi, a 24-year-old protester with bipolar disorder, was executed on January 23 of last year for the alleged murder of a police officer named Farid Kermpour Hasanvand, without meeting his family in Qazalhasar prison in Karaj. According to the Iran Human Rights Organization, the "charges" against most of these 5 individuals were labeled as "murder," and the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic condemned them to death without considering the history of mental illnesses or intellectual disabilities of the accused. The report states that Rashid Baloch, 35, was executed in Bandar Abbas prison, Alireza Razavi-Khalqabadi, 26, in Qazalhasar prison in Karaj, and Ezzat Seydi, 40, in Zanjan prison. The organization noted that while Islamic Penal Code exempts individuals with mental disorders from criminal responsibility, the "lack of transparency" in the Islamic Republic's judiciary makes it "very difficult" to prove the diagnosis of mental illnesses. This Norway-based human rights organization pointed out that in a resolution by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, all countries were urged to refrain from imposing the death penalty on individuals "suffering from any type of mental disorder." The issuance and execution of death sentences under the title of "Qisas Nafs" in the Islamic Republic of Iran occurs under conditions where, according to governmental laws, intentional murder is not graded, and "any type of murder, regardless of the severity and motivation of the accused, leads to a death sentence." The Iran Human Rights Organization and the French group "Solidarity Against the Death Penalty" announced on March 2 that the Iranian government executed at least 975 individuals in 2024; a figure that these two organizations claim is the highest since 2008.