Iranian woman waiting to be executed dies of a heart attack after watching 16 inmates hanged
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According to Amnesty International report, the Islamic Republic is second only to China in its use of capital punishment.
An Iranian woman waiting to be executed suffered a fatal heart attack as she watched 16 men die before her - but her body was hanged anyway at Rajai Shahr Prison.
Zahra Ismaili was convicted of the murder of her husband Alireza Zamani in Iran and sentenced to be hanged at Rajai Shahr Prison.
According to The Times, the mother-of-two had been convicted of killing her husband, who was a senior official in the Ministry of Intelligence.
Her lawyer, Omid Moradi, claimed her husband had allegedly been abusive to both her and their daughter and that she had acted in self-defence.
According to the Iran Human Rights Monitor (HRM), Ismaili’s death certificate gave her cause of death as “cardiac arrest”.
Her lawyer Omid Moradi reportedly wrote: “It states cardiac arrest as the cause of death because yesterday 16 men were hanged before her eyes. Zahra’s heart stopped and she died before she was taken to the gallows."
Omid Moradi, the lawyer of a woman recently executed in #Iran says she suffered a fatal stroke after witnessing 16 men being hanged & authorities hanged her dead body. #ZahraEsmaili mother of 2 was found guilty of killing her husband who was a high ranking intel official. pic.twitter.com/9tnNObXGyF
— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) February 19, 2021
According to Amnesty International 2019 report, the Islamic Republic is second only to China in its use of capital punishment.
But even by Iran's standards, a mass execution of 17 people in one day is uncommon.
(With inputs from agencies)