By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi ruled that there is “no need” for a man who survived a hanging to be hanged a second time. Lawyers and human rights activists lobbied the head of the judiciary to prevent a repeat hanging after the man was found alive in a morgue.

Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi reasoned that executing the man would have negative repercussions against Iran’s image, the ISNA news agency reported. Iran’s government had no direct control over the decision as the power fell directly with the judiciary.

One senior judge, Nourollah Aziz-Mohammadi, argued that the law required that the convict must die.

“When a convict is sentenced to death, he must die after the sentence is carried out,” Aziz-Mohammadi said. “Now that he is alive, we can say the sentence was not carried out and must be repeated.”

The 37-year-old convicted drug smuggler, named as Alireza M, was hanged at a jail in the north-eastern city of Bojnord last week. He had been left to hang for 12 minutes and was declared dead by a doctor. It was not until the next day that he was discovered alive in the morgue when his family came to retrieve his body. Alireza was taken to a Bojnord hospital, where he is reportedly in a coma and under armed guard.

Last week, Amnesty International and other human rights activists urged Iran to spare Alireza based upon international laws against cruel and unusual punishment. Amnesty International estimates that Iran has executed at least 508 people this year alone and has called for a moratorium on all executions in Iran.

“The horrific prospect of this man facing a second hanging, after having gone through the whole ordeal already once, merely underlines the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program.

For further information, please see:

ABC – Iran Minister Says No Need to Re-Hang Convict – 22 October 2013

BBC – Iran minister says ‘no need’ to hang criminal again –  22 October 2013

Washington Post – Iran says ‘no need’ to finish off convict who survived his hanging –  22 October 2013

Reuters – Hope for Iranian who survived botched hanging as sharia expert doubts ruling – 19 October 2013