Prisoner Hanged One Day After Suicide Attempt

Omid Sajjadi, a death row inmate convicted of drug trafficking charges at Bandar Abbas Prison, was hanged on March 22 after he attempted suicide by cutting a vein in his neck on March 21, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The human rights activist told the Campaign that Sajjadi, 28, was imprisoned two years ago. After the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, he was transferred on March 21 from Ward 8 to a solitary cell in the Quarantine Ward of Bandar Abbas Prison, in preparation for his execution. After prison officials refused his last request to visit with his family, Sajjadi asked the prison guards to unlock his handcuffs so that he could pray. Omid Sajjadi then proceeded to use a sharp edge of his wristwatch to slice his own neck, but prison guards prevented his suicide. Despite the heavy bleeding from his neck, the prison guards did not offer him any treatment except for a simple bandage, and he was hanged a few hours later even as his neck continued to bleed.

The human rights activist added that the soldiers from the Sentence Enforcement Unit, observing the neck bleeding, refused to pull the stool from under Sajjadi’s feet, but a prison official pulled the stool and enforced the sentence.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran