Alaeddin Karimi, the head of Security and Corrective Measures at Zanjan Prisons, says: “Seven individuals sentenced to death were released from their sentence following the efforts of various judiciary bodies.”
In an interview with IRNA, Karimi reported that concentrated efforts by judges, elders and dispute-resolution councils in the past year have saved seven people on death row from hanging.
He explained that all the legal procedures were carried out in all the cases; the death sentences were issued by the courts for the seven individuals, but at the final stage the next of kin of their victims consented to forego the execution.
He reported that the convicts who got reprieves are between 20 and 50 years of age.
In a recent statement, the spokesman for Iran’s judiciary lauded the body’s success in managing to secure consent from the victims’ next of kin in 375 cases of Qesas convicts in the past year so that their death sentences could be commuted.
