Overview

• Sajad Molayi Hakani was publicly hanged from a crane on August 19 in Fars province after a qisas conviction for the murders of a mother and her three children.
• Footage from the execution shows a crowd, including children, watching and applauding as the noose attached to a crane was tightened.
• Provincial judiciary chief Heidar Asiabi confirmed a separate public hanging at dawn on August 21 at the crime scene in Kordkuy, Golestan province.
• Sadrallah Rajaei, head of the Fars provincial judiciary, said Hakani’s co-defendant and wife, Masha Akbari, will have her qisas sentence carried out later in prison in the presence of the victims’ next of kin.
• The UN Human Rights Office cites at least 612 executions in the first half of 2025 and urges a halt to the death penalty, while Iranian authorities say it is used only for the most severe crimes.