A man convicted of killing four people was publicly executed in southern Iran on Tuesday, state media reported. The judiciary’s news platform, Mizan, said the execution took place in Beyram, a city in Fars Province.
The authorities stated that the man, whose name was not released, was hanged at dawn before residents who gathered to witness the punishment. According to Iranian law, murder and rape are crimes that carry the death penalty, and executions in public are still practiced in some parts of the country.
Mizan reported that the convicted man and his wife had murdered a woman and her three children during a robbery in October 2024. The incident caused outrage in the community and sparked calls for swift justice.
In February 2025, a lower court sentenced the couple to death after finding them guilty of the killings. The Supreme Court later upheld the verdict in April, confirming that the death sentence would be carried out. While the man’s execution has now been completed, his wife is expected to face the same punishment in prison at a later date.
Iran is among the countries with the highest execution rates in the world. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have consistently raised concerns about the scale of capital punishment in the country. Amnesty reports that Iran executes more people than any nation except China, with many executions carried out in public by hanging.
International human rights advocates have long criticized Iran’s reliance on the death penalty. They argue that public executions amount to cruel and degrading treatment and are intended more as a tool of intimidation than justice. Despite this, Iranian officials defend the practice, saying it serves as a deterrent against violent crime.
According to Mizan, the public execution in Beyram was attended by law enforcement officers and community members. Local reports indicated that the atmosphere was tense, with residents recalling the brutality of the original crime.
The judiciary has said that the killing of the woman and her children shocked the nation and justified the maximum penalty. The authorities also confirmed that the wife of the executed man remains on death row, but her hanging will take place behind closed doors inside a prison facility. No official date has been fixed for her execution.
Iran continues to maintain one of the strictest justice systems in the world, where serious crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, and sexual assault are punishable by death. In many cases, families of victims are also given a say in whether a convicted killer should face execution or be granted clemency.
Observers note that Iran has been carrying out more public executions in recent years, despite growing international pressure to abolish the death penalty. United Nations officials and human rights groups have repeatedly urged the Iranian government to halt public hangings, describing them as violations of human dignity.
For many Iranians, however, public executions are still viewed as a strong message against violent crimes and a means of ensuring justice for victims’ families. The case in Beyram highlights the tension between local expectations of justice and the broader calls for reform from the international community.
As Iran continues to implement strict punishment for violent crimes, the debate over the death penalty and public executions remains alive both within the country and across the global human rights landscape.
