Iran spares life of drug trafficker who survived his execution

Iran has spared the life of a convicted drug trafficker who survived his execution, Iranian media reports on Wednesday said.

TEHRAN // Iran has spared the life of a convicted drug trafficker who survived a hanging, according to media reports on Wednesday quoting the Iranian justice minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi.

The reports follow calls from within Iran and appeals from international rights groups against the man found alive in a morgue facing execution for a second time.

“The convict who survived [the death penalty] will not be executed again,” Mr Pour Mohammadi said Tuesday in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

“After putting much effort to prevent the second execution of this convict, we have received a positive response,” he said without elaborating.

All judicial affairs and decisions in the Islamic republic rest with the judiciary, which constitutionally operates independently from the government.

The convict, identified only as Alireza M, 37, was pronounced dead earlier this month by the attending doctor after hanging for 12 minutes from a noose suspended from a crane at a jail in north-east Iran.

But the next day, staff at the mortuary in the city of Bojnourd where his shrouded body was taken discovered he was still breathing.

Media later reported that he had fallen into a coma.

Mr Pour Mohammadi implied that a second execution would be damaging for Iran’s image. “If he survives, it is not expedient to hang him again,” said the minister.

The incident led to a heated debate between jurists, with some arguing against a repeat hanging and others for.

According to the media, a petition signed by jurists and attorneys was sent to judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, appealing for a stay in the exceptional case.

Amnesty International also called for an immediate stay of execution for Alireza M.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, with more than 500 cases last year and some 508 executions so far this year, according to Human Rights Watch.

* Agence France-Presse