Tehran:

Iran carried out on Monday a rare public execution of a man over the murder of a lawyer two years ago, state media reported.

“The death sentence against the murderer of a lawyer was carried out this morning in public in Shahroud city” of the northern Semnan province, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

The official IRNA news agency said the man was a 20-year-old who confessed to having been hired by a gang to kill the lawyer, without providing further details.

Monday’s execution was carried out in accordance with the Islamic Sharia law of “retribution”. 

Public executions are relatively rare in Iran, where almost all capital punishments are carried out inside prisons, usually by hanging.

Iran executes more people per year than any other nation except China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

On Wednesday, authorities in central Iran executed a male fortune-teller for raping and sexually assaulting his clients.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)