A Comparative Study of the Death Penalty and the Possibility of Its Abolition in Imami Jurisprudence and Iranian Criminal Law
Keywords:
punishment, criminal law, deprivation of life, Imami jurisprudenceAbstract
The right to life is among the most fundamental human rights. Due to social life, human beings must be subject to specific laws, particularly criminal laws, so that in their interactions, especially regarding matters related to life and human existence, they respect each other’s boundaries and do not infringe upon one another’s rights. In Islam, these rights are determined within the framework of the Islamic Penal Code. One of the major issues currently debated in judicial courts is the death penalty, which in Islamic punishment is manifested as hadd-based execution, qisas-based execution, and ta’zir-based execution. In the international community, many countries are striving to abolish the death penalty and have enacted laws toward this end. The aim of this article is to examine the extent to which the abolition of the death penalty is possible in Imami jurisprudence and Iranian criminal law. This study is descriptive–analytical in nature and relies on a library-based research method to investigate the stated question. The findings indicate that the abolition of the death penalty is not possible in qisas-based execution; in ta’zir-based execution, abolition is possible; and in hadd-based execution, in some instances such as apostasy, certain cases of moharebeh (armed rebellion), and some forms of ifsad fi al-ard (spreading corruption on earth), abolition is possible. However, in other instances, due to the existence of specific religious and legal textual stipulations, the death penalty cannot be abolished.
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