An Iranian man survives a day after execution

A man jailed for smuggling drugs and sentenced to death in Iran woke up the next day of the execution. The Iranian judicial authorities said he should be re-executed.

Alireza, a 37-year-old man imprisoned for smuggling drugs in early October and was executed in Iran’s northern Khorasan province, The Guardian said on Wednesday. Guards hooked ropes around his neck. Twelve minutes later, medics pronounced him dead and sent his body to the morgue. But in the morgue the next day, a worker who was preparing the corpse for family collection found steam in the plastic cover he was wrapped in. He was still alive. Alireza was taken to the hospital and is said to be healthy now after treatment. The British newspaper also said that it was the first time that a prisoner lived again after execution in Iran.

Iran’s judiciary has argued that he was sentenced to death, rather than to hanging, and should be re-executed.

Under Iranian law, convicts should be conscious and relatively healthy before execution and hanging is delayed for people who are pregnant or in a coma. If he is to be executed again, it should take place after he fully recovers. But human rights activists, already concerned about Iran’s being among the five countries with the highest rate of executions, say he should be spared. Iran is known to have executed at least 314 people, according to figures released by Amnesty International. Since Hassan Rouhani took office in early August as the new president of Iran, at least 125 people have been executed.

Under Iranian law, when someone is sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, for instance in adultery cases, if they manage to survive the execution, their life is spared. This supports the claims of those who are against the death penalty.