A man has been executed in the Iranian city of Semnan for having deliberately suffocated his wife.
The Mizan news agency, which is linked to the country’s judiciary, reported on Tuesday that the incident happened in Semnan in 2020, and the verdict was carried out after the initial death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Investigators later discovered that the husband had tried to make the death appear like it occurred from natural causes.
Officials said the attempt failed after forensic tests and a reconstruction of the crime.
Public executions are rare in Iran. They are usually conducted by hanging.
Iran’s rigorous use of capital punishment has for years been criticised by human rights activists, who accuse the Iranian judicial authorities of using execution to intimidate critical voices.
At the end of September, Amnesty International put the number of executions in the country this year at more than 1,000, more than in any other year in the past 15 years.
