BOJNURD, Iran, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Authorities in Iran will not try again to execute a convicted drug trafficker who survived being hanged, Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said.
The 37-year-old convict lived through the execution attempt at Bojnurd in northeastern Iran, government-backed Press TV reported Wednesday.
"The convict who survived execution is currently on a ventilator, and if he survives it won't be expedient to re-execute him," Pour-Mohammadi said Tuesday.
The man, identified as Alireza M., was convicted of possessing a kilogram of crystal meth and was sentenced to death by hanging.
On Oct. 9, the convict hanged from a noose for 12 minutes and was declared dead by the attending doctor, the judge who ordered the execution and the prison warden. When his relatives picked up his body at a morgue, he was still breathing.
