Under Iran's Islamic law, death penalty convicts can be spared if they pay restitution to the victim's family in exchange of a pardon. However, so far this year, 170 people have been executed in the Islamic republic. In one case, a man was hanged just a few minutes before he received his pardon.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The payment of "blood money" spared 358 Iranians from execution last year, Iran's Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said yesterday.

Under Sharia (Islamic law), the practice of diya (restitution) allows a victim's family to pardon a convicted felon if they receive financial recompense.

However, United Nations figures show that more than 170 people were executed in Iran since the start of 2014.

The most high-profile case involved a murderer known only as Balal. Two weeks ago, he escaped the gallows at the last minute when his victim's mother pardoned him, and only administered a slap on his face as punishment.

The blood money in the Balal case had been raised from the proceeds of a film director's special screening, amounting to 3 billion rials (US$ 90,000).

After this, Iranian media reported many other cases in which the condemned was pardoned by the families of the victims. One of them was pardoned a few minutes after he was hanged.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN's human rights rapporteur on Iran, has urged Iranian authorities to conduct a re-trial of a woman sentenced to death for killing a former Iranian intelligence official, to "ensure the defendant's right to due process which is guaranteed under both Iranian law and international law."

• iran
• death
• penalty
• blood
• money
• restitution
• diya