The Iranian judiciary has once again publicly executed a man convicted of murder, the second death sentence carried out in public this week.
The man was executed on Wednesday morning in the north-eastern province of Golestan "at the scene of the crime and in front of the public," the Misan news agency, which is affiliated with the judiciary, reported on Thursday.
According to the judiciary, the convict had killed a married couple and a young woman with a hunting rifle last year. The death sentence was handed down based on an interpretation of Islamic law, according to which the families of the victims are allowed to take revenge.
Iran's Supreme Court upheld the judgement in an appeal.
While public executions are rare in Iran, another execution was carried out publicly in Fars province on Tuesday. A man was executed who, together with his wife, is said to have killed a woman and her three children during a robbery.
The wife was also sentenced to death, but her execution has not yet been carried out.
Human rights activists have been criticizing the rigorous application of the death penalty in Iran for many years. They accuse the judiciary of using executions to intimidate critical voices. According to the United Nations, almost 1,000 people were executed in Iran last year.
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