Outcry as Iran executes young man despite alleged mental illness

Iran executed on Tuesday a young man with an alleged history of mental illness who was accused of killing a police officer and injuring five others during the anti-regime protests in 2022, despite his attorney saying his murder charge was overturned by the Supreme Court and pleas by his family and rights activists following reports of his imminent execution a day earlier.

Mohammad Ghobadlou, 23, was hanged early Tuesday after the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty issued against him on charges of “murder,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

Ghobadlou was arrested in September 2022 in the city of Parand, near the capital Tehran, after allegedly running his car into a group of policemen, resulting in the death of one officer, according to Mizan.

Ghobadlou was sentenced to death in November 2022 on the vague charge of “corruption on earth,” which is punishable by death under Islamic law. The sentence was upheld in December 2022.