Photos have captured the remarkable moment an Iranian man smiles as he is prepared for execution in Iran.
Majid Kavousifar, 28, was pictured as a noose was placed around his neck moments before he was hanged.
He was convicted for the murder of Judge Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi along with his nephew Hossein.
They were both publicly executed in Tehran back in 2007.
Moghadassi was a judge in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court. He was shot twice by Kavousifar, who opened fire from a motorcycle.
Kavousifar fled to the UAE and tried to get refugee status at the US embassy, but he was later handed over to the Emiratoi police who then extradited him back to Iran.
Kavousifar and his nephew were hanged from cranes before they died minutes later.
In the moments before his death, Kavousifar was seen smiling. He even told Iranian police: “I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice.”
Kavousifar even waved while handcuffed as he was prepared for execution.
The images have resurfaced after two Iranian judges allegedly responsible for a number of executions of political dissidents were killed in Tehran on Saturday.
In 2023, 1,153 executions were carried out around the world. This represented a rise of 30%t when compared with 2022 and an 83% increase against 2021's numbers.
Iran is a major factor for this rise. Tehran alone accounted for 74% of the killings, with Saudi Arabia coming in second.
Iran's regime has clamped down on political protest after mass-demonstrations were held in late 2022.
They came after the killing of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022. She was detained for allegedly breaking Iran's strict dress codes.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general, said in a statement: “The huge spike in recorded executions was primarily down to Iran.
“The Iranian authorities showed complete disregard for human life and ramped up executions for drug-related offenses, further highlighting the discriminatory impact of the death penalty on Iran's most marginalized and impoverished communities.”