Report on the execution of three prisoners, including a female prisoner in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad
23-August-2020
Category: executions
Breathing in Confinement: On Tuesday, August 18, 2020, four prisoners who had previously been sentenced to death on murder charges, were executed in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. And at least one woman was among those executed.
Below is a report about three executed prisoners:
According to the Rokna news agency, one of the executed prisoners had been previously sentenced to two times execution by a criminal court in Khorasan Razavi on charges of “murder”. His sentence was carried out in Mashhad Central Prison. He was accused of stabbing two people to death around nine years ago during a scuffle.
According to this report, on March 28, 2011, at 23, a quarrel took place in the “Qale-e-Sakhteman” area in the City of Mashhad which brought the police to the scene on “Hor” Street. Preliminary investigations indicated that two young men were severely injured after being stabbed in front of a house and they both died after being taken to a medical center. Afterward, the police officers of Shahid Rajaei town (Qale-e-Sakhteman) notified the special judge for premeditated murder. And the initial investigation began when the Judge, Ali Akbar Safaeian, presented in the medical center as well as the crime scene, on the same night.
In the very first moments of the judicial investigation, the judge of Branch 809 of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Mashhad, was convinced that the scuffle had happened secondary to a dispute over the drugs and the parties knew each other. A group of detectives from the Criminal Police Department, therefore, were assigned to investigate the latest connections of the victims. As such, the clue was obtained from a 34 -year-old man named “Gholamreza” who had been seen at the scene, a few minutes before the murder. And the accused was eventually arrested.
“One of the victims was an Afghan national, and I used to take drugs from them and we knew each other,” Gholamreza-Q said at the first interrogation session. “Before the incident, we used drugs together, and then I asked them to give me some drugs for the next day. But they gave me counterfeit drugs. That’s why I took the materials back to them.” He continued.
He added: “This led to a quarrel and obscenity between us and I suddenly attacked the Afghan man named “F-A” with a knife. At this moment, another 24-year-old man named “G-K” also got into the fight. I stabbed them both and fled until I was arrested for robbing a shop.”
Following the defendant’s statements, an indictment was issued against him in the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Mashhad. The defendant then stood trial in Branch 3 of the Criminal Court of Khorasan Razavi, on charge of killing two people. After several court hearings, the judges sentenced the defendant to death twice. Once the verdict was finalized, the case was sent to the sentence implementation department at the Public Prosecutor’s Office. And finally, following legal procedures, the 43-year-old prisoner was hanged at dawn on Tuesday, August 18, in Mashhad Central Prison.
In another report from the same news agency, on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, another 30-year-old man was executed. He was accused of killing a young man in a fight and setting his home on fire using gasoline to destroy the evidence.
According to the report, this 30-year-old man had been arrested and sentenced to death 4 years ago. He had reportedly killed the victim at his place after a dispute happened between them.
The defendant had said in his statement in the court: I knew “S” from social media and I went to his place and we were together for a few hours. The next day, however, we had a dispute over some issues, while each of us insisted on his point until the argument escalated to a fight and he attacked me with a knife. At this time, I took my new friend’s knife and stabbed him on the neck. Afterward, I did not realize how many times I stabbed him. I then threw the body in the bathroom and went to my father and one of my friends and told them the story. This is how my father went with me and my friend to the crime scene to destroy the evidence.
We decided to set the home and the body on fire using gasoline so that he would not be identified. We poured the gasoline on the furniture. When I lit the match, however, there happened an explosion due to the condensation of gasoline vapor, and I was stuck between the door and the frame, and some parts of my body got burned. Then we got on the victim’s Peugeot car and escaped from the crime scene and set the car on fire around the Kardeh Dam in Mashhad so that no trace would remain.
According to this report, the judges at Branch 5 of the Criminal Court in Khorasan Razavi sentenced him to retaliation (death).
When the verdict was approved at Branch 9 of the Supreme Court and after the legal procedures, the case was referred to the sentence implementation department of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Mashhad. And finally, the sentence execution order was issued by Judge Mohammad Reza Dashtban (Sentence Implementation Deputy of Khorasan Razavi Prosecutor). And after four years in prison, “A.-Gh” (30 years old) was executed at dawn on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, as the blood owners refused to pardon him and insisted on retaliation.
A female prisoner mother of 2, also was executed on the same day. The woman was accused of killing a taxi driver.
According to Rokna, on April 2, 2010, in Mashhad, a 38-year-old woman, after travelling from Tehran to Mashhad, was waiting for a taxi on Tabarsi Street along with her children. At that time, a driver who was passing by, noticed her and her children. So he drove a distance backward to reach the young woman.
The woman and her children got into the car and the driver drove to 17 Shahrivar Square in Mashhad, the destination of his passengers. When a 40-year-old driver on 17 Shahrivar Street in Mashhad pressed the brake pedal and pulled the car to the side of the street to drop his passengers, the young woman handed over a 2,000 Toman banknote to the driver and waited for the change while taking her children out of the car. The driver however, didn’t return the change and was about to leave. The woman objected and asked for the remaining 500 tomans. But the driver claimed that the fare was 2000 tomans! When the dispute led to a verbal argument and a fight, the 38-year-old woman suddenly pulled a knife out of her purse and attacked the driver. She horribly stabbed the driver who was still confused, leaving him soaked in blood on the ground.
A few minutes later a commotion broke out on 17 Shahrivar Street and the astonished citizens called the police and emergency services. The therapeutic measures, however, failed and the young driver died. This is how the criminal case was filed and investigated by a special judge for premeditated murder. The 38-year-old woman, who was arrested by the police, explained the details of this horrific incident: “When I asked the driver to return the change, he said: ‘I drove a distance backward to reach you, so the fare would be two thousand tomans’. Hearing this, I got angry, I cursed him and said, “I suppose that I have donated that 500 tomans for my children to stay safe!” But the driver, who did not expect what I said, got angrily out of his car and slapped me in the face and started swearing! When my daughter saw this, protesting to the driver said: “Why are you beating my mother?” On the other hand, when I saw the situation, getting so angry, I took a kitchen knife out of a plastic bag in my purse and stabbed him and he fell on the ground.
After the trial, the death sentence was issued for this woman by Branch 3 of Mashhad Criminal Court and the sentence was held by Branch 28 of the Supreme Court. And after ten years, as the blood owners refused to forgive the woman, the execution of her death sentence was kicked off by Judge Mohammad Reza Dashtban (Deputy Prosecutor of Khorasan Razavi). And she finally was executed in Vakilabad prison in Mashhad on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, in the presence of Judge Zargar (the Judge for sentence implementation department of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Mashhad).