There is “no need” for Alireza M’s second execution after he survived a first hanging, Iran’s justice minister says.
Lawyers want the head of the judiciary to stop a repeat hanging after Alireza M was found alive in a morgue.
Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said executing the man would have repercussions against Iran’s image, the ISNA news agency reported.
The government has no direct control over the judiciary which has to decide whether a second execution takes place.
Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world.
Amnesty International has urged Iran not to go ahead with a repeat execution for drug smuggler Alireza M who survived a botched hanging
Alireza M, a 37-year-old convicted drug smuggler, was found alive in a morgue after being hanged at a jail in the north-eastern city of Bojnord last week.
He had been left to hang for 12 minutes after which a doctor declared him dead, reports said.
But when Alireza M’s family went to collect his body from the prison morgue the next day, they found he was still breathing.
The man was then moved to a hospital where he was being kept under armed guard.
Alireza M’s condition is not known although the IRNA news agency reported on Monday that he had fallen into a coma.
Last week, Amnesty International urged Iran not to go ahead with a repeat execution.
Amnesty International also called for a moratorium on all executions in Iran.
Amnesty International has urged Iran not to go ahead with a repeat execution for drug smuggler Alireza M who survived a botched hanging.
Alireza M was found alive in a morgue after being hanged at a jail in the north-eastern city of Bojnord last week.
The condemned man is now being nursed to recovery in preparation for his repeat execution.
“The verdict was the death sentence, and it will be carried out once the man gets well again,” an official said.
Human rights groups believe Iran is second only to China in the number of people it puts to death for crimes ranging from murder and rape to spying and drug-trafficking.
Amnesty International has urged Iran not to go ahead with a repeat execution for drug smuggler Alireza M who survived a botched hanging
In a separate incident reported by Iranian media on Monday, relatives of a condemned murderer in the western province of Ilam tried to stop his execution at a prison by hurling a grenade.
Around 30 people were injured but the hanging went ahead.
Alireza M, 37, was left to hang for 12 minutes, after which a doctor declared him dead.
But when the prisoner’s family went to collect his body from the prison morgue the next day, they found he was still breathing.
“We found him alive again, which made his two daughters very happy,” an unnamed family member told Iranian state media.
Alireza M was then moved to a hospital where he was being kept under armed guard.
“The horrific prospect of this man facing a second hanging, after having gone through the whole ordeal already once, merely underlines the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, in a press release.
Philip Luther called for both a stay of execution for the hanging survivor and a moratorium on all executions in Iran.
According to Amnesty International, at least 508 people may have been executed in Iran this year to date. Most of those killed had been convicted of drug trafficking, it said.
