BOJNURD, Iran, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Iranian officials must halt the execution of a man who survived being hanged, Amnesty International said after authorities said the man would be executed again.
The international human rights organization said in a statement that it was morally unacceptable that the condemned man, identified as Alireza M., should be subjected to such punishment, The New York Times reported Thursday.
"The horrific prospect of this man facing a second hanging, after having gone through the whole ordeal already once, merely underlines the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty," said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program.
State media said a doctor declared the man dead after the 12 minute-hanging in Bojnurd last week on a drug trafficking conviction, but when the prisoner's family went to get his body at the morgue the next day, he was breathing, Amnesty International said Wednesday in a release.
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Amnesty International said the man was in a hospital, but a judge reportedly said he would be executed again "once medical staff confirms his health condition is good enough."
Iranian authorities are believed to have executed a total of at least 508 people, including 221 executions that have not been officially confirmed so far this year, Amnesty International said.
"It is natural that the Iranian authorities must combat the serious social, security and economic problems relating to drug trafficking and drug abuse but the reliance on the death penalty to combat drug trafficking is misguided and in violation of international law," Luther said.
Last week, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on Iranian authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on executions, citing an alarming rise in the use of the death penalty in recent weeks.
"Carrying out a second execution on a man who somehow managed to survive 12 minutes of hanging -- who was certified as dead and whose body was about to be turned over to his family -- is simply ghastly," Amnesty International's Luther said. "It betrays a basic lack of humanity that sadly underpins much of Iran's justice system."
