Ayatollah says man who survived execution should not be hanged again

An Iranian grand ayatollah who issued a fatwa ordering the re-execution of convicts who come back to life has said his religious ruling should not be applied in the case of the man who revived in the morgue earlier this month.

Alireza, a 37-year-old father of two, was hanged two weeks ago for possessing a kilo of crystal meth and was certified as dead by medics after lingering for 12 minutes from a rope tied around his neck.

He was sent for burial but a day later morgue workers realised he was still alive after spotting steam in the plastic cover he was wrapped in. Following his arrest three years ago, a revolutionary court had found Alireza guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced him to death.

Media reports in Iran have said the judicial authorities are planning to hang him again on the basis that he was sentenced to lose his life, rather than just to be hanged. A fatwa issued by the Shia Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani has been cited as justification for re-executing him.

However, a statement issued on behalf of Ayatollah Golpaygani yesterday said his religious ruling should not be applied to Alireza’s case and the ayatollah had “another view” about his destiny.

According to the semi-official Mehr news agency, Ayatollah Golpaygani has a fatwa in the second volume of his religious rulings, which says: “After the execution and before the burial, if the convict comes back to life while in the morgue or at the coroner’s office and recovers after treatment, the verdict for Qisas [retribution] or Had [punishment] remains viable.”

A statement issued on Ayatollah Golpaygani’s official website said: “The issue that has been raised on [his book] has nothing to do with [this man’s] case and the ayatollah has another view about his issue.”

The statement did not elaborate on what the ayatollah’s view was about Alireza’s fate.

Ayatollah Golpaygani reacted after a number of people contacted his office asking him to intervene or clarify his position over Alireza’s case. The state-run Jam-e-Jam newspaper, the first media organisation to break the news about Alireza’s ordeal, said many of its readers had asked for his life to be spared.

Judge's discretion
The references to Qisas and Had in the fatwa mean it only applies to sentences for certain crimes, called Hodud in the Islamic terminology, that are not at the discretion of the judge but are defined by sharia law.

Under Iranian sharia law, certain crimes such as sodomy, rape, theft, fornication, apostasy and consumption of alcohol for the third time are considered to be “claims of God” and therefore have a mandatory death sentence.

Alireza is instead condemned to Tazir, a punishment that can be administered at the discretion of the judge, raising hopes that the judiciary might be able to change its mind over his case.

“Alireza’s case is extraordinary and very exceptional,” said Amnesty’s Drewery Dyke. “There’s no complainant in his case and the chief of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani, should intervene so that his life is spared.”

Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who has defended many convicts on death row in the past, said Alireza's case was unprecedented in Iran but the judiciary could spare his life since it was a Tazir punishment.– (Guardian service)