An inmate has died of happiness after being told that his death sentence was being commuted.
Akbar, 55, from the port city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, spent 18 harrowing years on death row, with his life constantly hanging by a thread. Sentenced to death by a local court in 2003 on charges of “premeditated murder” of an acquaintance, Akbar’s life was reduced to a constant wait.
His three other accomplices were also arrested in the same case. After a lengthy trial, Akbar and another accomplice, Davood, were given death sentences for being the “masterminds”, while two other accused were given life terms.
Lawyers for the two accused men claimed that they had committed the murder “in defense of their honor”, mostly invoked when women face physical attack or harassment. The court rejected the argument, according to people aware of the case.
As the inmate was sitting quietly in his prison cell, the prison staff broke news to him. The longstanding, painful wait ended on a bittersweet note. Akbar was relieved that he no longer had to face the gallows that he feared the most.
He was recently forgiven by his victim’s family which meant he would no longer face the death penalty. Officials in the state’s dispute resolution board are reported to have helped to persuade the family to make the decision.
But after learning that the victim’s family had pardoned him and that he no longer faced the hangman, Akbar suffered a heart attack as a result of being “overjoyed” and died, according to a report in the state-run newspaper Hamshahri.
Sources familiar with the case as saying that Akbar had spent all these years in fear of being executed for committing the murder at the age of 37. In many cases, judges try to persuade the family to forgive the murderer, even at times pressuring them to do so.
Often, a murder execution is delayed for several years after the murder was committed in order to persuade the family to exercise forgiveness and allow time for the murderer to pay Diyyeh.
Iranian legal sources put a typical Diyyeh payment of $112,000. Despite that arrangement, Iran still executes more of its citizens, per capita, than any other nation on Earth.
Apart from internationally-recognized crimes such as murder, rape, and drug trafficking, the hardline Islamic state also puts people to death for homosexuality and religious offenses such as “waging war against God”; “spreading corruption on Earth”.
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