Balal, who killed an Iranian youth Abdolah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007, is brought to the gallows during his execution ceremony in the northern city of Nowshahr on April 15, 2014. The mother of Abdolah Hosseinzadeh spared the life of Balal, her son's convicted murderer, with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution prior to removing the noose around his neck. PHOTO: AFP
TEHRAN: An Iranian mother spared the life of her son's convicted murderer with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution with the noose around his neck, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The dramatic climax followed a rare public campaign to save the life of Balal, who at 19 killed another young man, Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, in a street fight with a knife back in 2007.
Shargh newspaper said police officers led Balal to a public execution site in the northern city of Nowshahr as a large crowd gathering on Tuesday morning.
Samereh Alinejad, mother of the victim who lost another son in a motorbike accident four years ago, asked the crowd whether they know "how difficult it is to live in an empty house."
Balal, black-hooded and standing on a chair before a makeshift gallows, had the noose around his neck when Alinejad approached.
She slapped him in the face and removed the rope from his neck assisted by her husband, Abdolghani Hosseinzadeh, a former professional footballer.
"I am a believer. I had a dream in which my son told me that he was at peace and in a good place... After that, all my relatives, even my mother, put pressure on me to pardon the killer," Alinejad told Shargh.
"The murderer was crying, asking for forgiveness. I slapped him in the face. That slap helped to calm me down," she said. "Now that I've forgiven him, I feel relieved."
Balal said the "slap was the space between revenge and forgiveness."
"I've asked my friends not to carry knives... I wish someone had slapped me in the face when I wanted to carry one," Balal said in a television interview.
A high-profile campaign was launched by public figures including Adel Ferdosipour, a popular football commentator and TV show host, and former international footballer Ali Daei, appealed for the victim's family to forgive the killer.
According to the United Nations, more than 170 people have been executed in the Islamic republic since the beginning of 2014.
Under the country's interpretation of Islamic sharia laws in force since a 1979 revolution, murder and several other crimes are punishable by death.
But the victim's family has the right to spare a convict's life in return for blood money, under Islamic laws.
This sequence of Tuesday's dramatic scenes of a last-minute pardon was captured in a photo essay (you can see the images here).
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@Pierre F. Lherisson: With respect, I believe that you are incorrect. Yes, the death penalty will not bring back what has been lost, but neither can incarceration or any other form of justice man has yet devised. Therefore to bring that point into an argument about the pragmatism of the death penalty is in fact illogical and proves nothing.
As to your second point, while it is true that punishment can only deter up to a certain limit, and the causes for crime are more fundamental, I would like to consider a simple analogy to illustrate the efficacy of corporal punishment.
You are walking on a pavement ,considering jaywalking to get to the other side of the street where your girlfriend is waiting for you. You are about to take the first step when you see a man cross to the side of you...... (two different scenarios for what follows):
The man is running across the road when a car coming at breakneck speed hits him across the midriff, causing him to break a few bones.
The man is stopped by a policeman and is given a fine to pay and has to go to the station for a while.
Which scenario will leave a more lasting impression on you, and will make you consider more seriously when crossing the road?
To forgive is truly divine and they ivied by Gods law not their own imposing one
There are really few comments here about what victim's mother done! Some one kills your family, then you can come over your own hate to forgive the killer. Two important parts: 1-If some one "GUILTY" kills your family , it is not only law decides about killer , you as victim family are bearing so much pain , so you have the RIGHT to choose the killer death in return. This Right will help the society more secured. it will makes some concerns in the mind of those guilty one who don't respect the law , that if they pass some red-lines , a bad destiny they may have. I believe it will held some guilty ones from going too out-laws. What prison can never make, as prison we have made , is a place where guilty guys can rest and collaborate and learn more wrong things instead than right things. we helped them to improve in being out law by providing them a miserable school of wrongs in prison.
2- you as a victim family have the right to forgive. believing forgiveness will bring more calm and peace for you and for society. while killer is worried about your decision and will taste the death in his mind, your forgiveness will possibly bring peace for you change killer and killer family life. such culture is respectable of course it is not going to include all killers.
@Baji Jee: this is what i have been thinking....i second you.
Reply to Abdur rehman; antanu etc.. Any human being is capable of doing good or bad depending of the parameters. I have met people that were killing people in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Africa and other people that were in prisons for commiting serious crimes. Now some of them are useful members of society pursuing endeavor such as clergy, chief, budhist, scientist, computer scientist, teacher, philosopher etc.. If those people were dead, they won't be able to be useful to society. A wrong cannot undo another wrong; it add more grief to society and sometime creates a vicious circle. The logical apprache to the problem is to make the murderer liable to provide long term restitution to the family of the victims. And, it is a Win-win solution.
Permanent incarceration is the answer...death penalty is nothing but revenge taken by a whole community...and religiously speaking, when you don't give life, you can't take it...salute to the mother..
How do you guys know that Pierre F. Lherisson is from the US?
@Pierre F. Lherisson: Thanks for your comment. Being ignorant of other culture does not suit an educated person. If you follow any religion than you must abide by the rules and regulation. Every Society will go through its cycle of growth. Your Stupid comment will not lead them to your thinking faster. In a civilize Society, it the Government's right to establish some kind of system of Justice. Harsher punishment to a fitting crime is a good deterrent. For example, a rapist should not be allowed to walk away from crime with a slap on a wrist. Another example would be of a marihuana user should not given a life term for get caught with a small bag of marihuana. We all grow up under the supervision of a parents and we all got punish for stupid thing. The government acts like a parent, but heinous crimes should have a harsher punishment. Deterrent is in a mind of a person and harsher punishment will sway their mind from picking to be a criminal of a law abiding citizen of Society.
@ Pierre F. Lherisson: i'd like to ask you how you feel if your daughter/father/brother/mother/son/wife, etc were murdered in cold blood. a life for a life, as ordained by the Creator of Life. Execution failed to be a deterrent?? Really? Ever live in Saudi Arabia, where there is hardly any crime, where all people live safely and securely? That is BECAUSE of Sharia Law. Tell me any Western country, yours included, where people are safe and crime is practically non existent...There isnt any!
Forgiveness is greater than vengeance. Love is more powerful than hate.
@Abdur rehman, yeah when money can sort out things, why kill someone. money better than execution.
@Pierre F. Lherisson:
look who is saying....there are many states in USA where death penalty are carried on through lethal injection or electrocution.....
@Abdur rehman: Watch the documentary "Give Up Tomorrow" and you may change your mind. Death is final, what happens if, as happens too many times, someone if found to be innocent at a later date?
@Lherisson The US has one of the highest rates of executions in the world and is also the loudest preacher of Human Rights and civil liberties while also demonstrating the "shock and awe" to all and sundry all over the world.. The hypocrisy is nauseating.
wow so now we protect the criminal from being punished... hmmm.. he can kill a person but killing him is barbaric? we have to treat him as a human but does he treat the other person the same when he kill him?. Veselin Šljivančanin,Pavle Strugar,Momčilo Perišić and many other had committed atrocious crime but they did not being punish with death penalty but just mild sentence compare to their crime. are we still considering as human after what they have done? they are monster.. and monster should not be given the Human rights...
@Pierre F. Lherisson: true....but tell the alternative solution or it will be the law of jungle everywhere.
Death penalty is barbaric and illogic. Execution of the presumed guilty cannot resuscitate the victims nor undo the initial damages. Execution failed miserably to be a deterrent worldwide. The justice system everywhere is far from being perfect because certain parameters such as ethnicity, ideology wealth, etc surreptitiously tend to modify or changes the outcome of a verdict. Thus, innocents are punished and guilty are freed. Thus, Countries that carry the death penalty cannot equate themselves as being just, civilized and are in no position to dictate their brand of Human Rights and morality to other countries.
Wow..........