Iranian authorities carried out on Saturday a public execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a young girl, the judiciary said.

The victim’s family, from the northwestern city of Bukan, had been involved in the legal proceedings and requested the public execution, according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website.

“The case was given special attention due to the emotional impact it had on public opinion,” Mizan quoted the provincial chief justice, Naser Atabati, as saying.

The death sentence was issued in March and later upheld by the Islamic Republic’s top court.

The execution was carried out in public “at the request of the victim’s family and citizens, due to the emotional impact the case had on society,” Atabati said.

Public executions, typically by hanging, are not uncommon in Iran but do occur in cases deemed especially severe.

Murder and rape are punishable by death in Iran, the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International.

In June 2025, Iran executed a man convicted in the fatal shootings of seven people during a 2022 protest over the death of the Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, though human rights activists say the perpetrator was tortured into confessing to killings likely carried out by security services.

The hanging of Abbas Kourkouri, also known as Mojahed Kourkouri, marked the first execution in nearly a year for someone arrested in the protests surrounding the death of Amini, who had been detained by police allegedly over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to their liking.

Her death sparked months of demonstrations. Even today, some women refuse to wear their headscarves in public, openly defying a hijab law instituted by the country’s theocracy.