Iran executes convicted killer of forest guards

According to a judicial official, the convicted killer of two forest guards in April 2021 was executed in northwest Iran on Monday.

The judiciary chief of Zanjan province, Esmail Sadeghi-Niaraki, said the sentence was carried out “in accordance” with the law of an eye-for-an-eye, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.

ISNA news agency said the two guards in a protected forestry zone had chased a suspected poacher in a car on April 5 of last year.

“The killer martyred the two guards, shooting them during the chase,” said Sadeghi-Niaraki.

His arrest was announced at the end of May and the death sentence two weeks later on the basis of a police investigation and his own confession, state news agency IRNA reported.

According to Amnesty International, Iran is the world’s second highest executioner, after China, with 246 individuals executed in 2020.