Jaber Khosravi, a patient with severe mental illness, executed in Damghan prison

The Islamic Republic executed Jaber Khosravi, a 43-year-old man from Damghan with documented medical records of severe mental illness, in Damghan prison. Iran Human Rights announced his identity on Monday, 12 October 2026; the Islamic Republic's judiciary had earlier published news of the execution without naming the prisoner.

According to Iran Human Rights, Jaber Khosravi's medical file shows that for years he was treated for bipolar disorder, aggression and repeated episodes of psychosis. The organisation says a Forensic Medicine report from 2023–24 also described panic attacks, anxiety, mood disorder and depression that had led to an emergency hospital admission. It stresses that he was in a state of mental crisis at the time of the incident and was not criminally responsible.

The case of Jaber Khosravi

Jaber Khosravi was arrested in August–September 2022. He was accused of the "premeditated murder" of Mohammad Javad Rahimi, a police officer who was killed by two gunshots at Velayat Hospital in Damghan on 2 September 2022. The case was heard by Branch 2 of the Criminal Court One of Semnan Province in Shahroud, and the retribution (qisas) sentence was carried out after the Supreme Court upheld it. In announcing the execution, the head of the Semnan Province judiciary did not name the prisoner and made no mention of his history of mental illness.

Under international human rights standards, executing people with a severe mental disability or illness is prohibited; Amnesty International had previously cited the same principle in the case of Mohammad Ghobadlou, a protester with bipolar disorder who was executed in 2023–24.

The wave of executions in Iran

The execution of Jaber Khosravi comes in the midst of an unprecedented wave of executions in Iran. HRANA had earlier announced that the Islamic Republic has executed at least 2,003 people in the past year, the highest figure in a decade. In these same days, another prisoner in Hormozgan was executed on a charge of killing a police officer.

The Islamic Republic executed a man who, according to Iran Human Rights, had been treated for years for severe mental illness.