Iranian execution survivor may be spared second hanging

The Justice Minister has said it would be ill-advised to execute a convicted drug offender who has already survived a hanging.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi issued the statement after international calls to spare the man, a 37-year-old named only as Alireza M.

The man was hanged earlier this month in a prison in the north-eastern city of Bojnord. He was declared dead by a doctor after hanging from a noose for 12 minutes, but was found still alive in the morgue the next day.

Jurists are arguing over whether the law requires him to be hanged a second time. A senior judge, Nourollah Aziz-Mohammadi, said the sentence had not been carried out. But a lawyer said the sentence had been carried out and there was no need to repeat it. Amnesty International has urged Iran to halt the man’s execution – as well as all other death penalties. Iran executes more people than any other country, except China.

Mr Pourmohammadi told Irna, the state news agency: “The individual who remained alive after execution is on an oxygen device. If he remains alive, it is no longer expedient for the execution order to be carried out again.”

Reuters