Death Sentences in Borujerd as Crime Rate Soars

The head of the General Prosecutor’s office in Borujerd, western Iran, has announced that five people have been sentenced to death in the city this year.

Judges handed down the death penalties in line with the practice of qesas, or retribution. Qesas is usually used in murder cases, resulting in the guilty criminal facing the death penalty. But it has also been used to punish those guilty of acid attacks. Earlier this year, Iran’s judiciary made history when it instructed a medical team to perform an operation that would leave a convicted criminal blind in one eye. The man was found guilty of throwing acid on another man’s face, which resulted in the victim losing sight in both eyes.

Judicial official Hamidreza Abolhassani said that the retaliation verdicts in Borujerd were approved “after passing through the required legal reviews and procedures.”

The website Borujerdtimes and Tasnim News Agency reported that one of the cases involved the 2014 murder of a police officer, Fath Elahi. The man found guilty of the crime will face execution.

Abolhassani also spoke of said the city’s prisons were not sufficiently equipped to cope with the 1,100 inmates currently being held in them, and that there were no measures in place to reform criminals. “Unfortunately, these prisons have lost their educational aspect,” he said, “They have turned merely into a place to keep criminals, providing the opportunity for young criminals to get acquainted with veterans.”

“Theft is the most common crime,” the senior official said, followed by violent crimes and “offences related to drug abuse.”

Abolhassani also blamed increased immigration for the recent crime wave in Borujerd.

Although the practice of qesas is rooted in Islamic law, legal experts and Islamic scholars disagree on whether it is an appropriate punishment, with some arguing that carrying out retaliation sentences is a religious obligation and others insisting that Islamic rulings were originally created to fit a specific time and place, and should be regularly assessed and amended.

Read the original article in Persian

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