Iran hanging survivor 'won't be executed again', reports say

Iran has decided to spare the life of a convicted drug trafficker who survived a hanging, reports yesterday quoted Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as saying.

The reports follow calls from within Iran and appeals from international rights groups over the man found alive in a morgue facing execution for a second time. "The convict who survived ... will not be executed again," Pour-Mohammadi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

"After putting much effort to prevent the second execution of this convict, we have received a positive response," he said.

All judicial affairs and decisions in the Islamic republic rest with the judiciary, which constitutionally operates independently from the government.

The 37-year-old convict, identified only as Alireza M, was pronounced dead earlier this month by the attending doctor after hanging for 12 minutes from a noose suspended from a crane at a jail in northeast Iran.

But the next day, staff at the mortuary in the city of Bojnourd discovered he was still breathing. Media later reported that he had fallen into a coma.