Before being executed, an Iranian man spreads a message of peace and victory.
36-year-old Nader Haghighat Naseri, who was hanged in public in November 2014, had one message for those watching his execution in Mashhad, Iran: triumph and peace.
Naseri was found guilty of Moharebeh, or waging war against God, for being a part of an armed organization that participated in multiple armed robberies.
However, it's unlikely that the accusations made against Naseeri were true considering the Iranian government's use of torture during interrogations, biased trials, and lack of openness in court proceedings. Or that they deserved to be executed, for that matter. United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Iran claim that
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"According to international law, the death sentence is the worst type of punishment and ought to be applied only to the most heinous offenses. Defendants in capital trials ought to be granted the requirements of a fair trial found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran joined in 1975. Any execution carried out in violation of these international commitments would be considered arbitrary."
Only a few other nations still use public executions: North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, in addition to Iran. Iran has executed 156 individuals between 2007 and 2012, according to Amnesty International (many more were executed without being given the death penalty). For the purpose of comparison, throughout the same era, 504 persons in the US had received death sentences.
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