Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani says his own fatwa should not be applied in case of drug smuggler Alireza

An Iranian grand ayatollah who issued a fatwa ordering the re-execution of convicts who come back to life has said his religious ruling should not be applied in the case of the man who revived in the morgue earlier this month.

Alireza, a 37-year-old father of two, was hanged two weeks ago for possessing a kilo of crystal meth and was certified as dead by medics after lingering for 12 minutes from a rope tied around his neck.

He was sent for burial but a day later morgue workers realised he was still alive after spotting steam in the plastic cover he was wrapped in. Following his arrest three years ago, a revolutionary court had found Alireza guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced him to death.

Media reports in Iran have said the judicial authorities are planning to hang him again on the basis that he was sentenced to lose his life, rather than just to be hanged. A fatwa issued by the Shia grand ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani has been cited as justification for re-executing him.

However, a statement issued on behalf of Golpaygani on Thursday said his religious ruling should not be applied to Alireza's case and the ayatollah had "another view" about his destiny.

According to the semi-official Mehr news agency, Golpaygani has a fatwa in the second volume of his religious rulings, which says: "After the execution and before the burial, if the convict comes back to life while in the morgue or at the coroner's office and recovers after treatment, the verdict for Qisas (retribution) or Had (punishment) remains viable."

A statement issued on Golpaygani's official website said: "The issue that has been raised on [his book] has nothing to do with [this man's] case and the ayatollah has another view about his issue." The statement did not elaborate on what the ayatollah's view was about Alireza's fate.

Golpaygani reacted after a number of people contacted his office asking him to intervene or clarify his position over Alireza's case. The state-run Jam-e-Jam newspaper, the first media organisation to break the news about Alireza's ordeal, said many of its readers had asked for his life to be spared.

The references to Qisas and Had in Golpaygani's fatwa mean it only applies to sentences for certain crimes, called Hodud in the Islamic terminology, that are not at the discretion of the judge but are defined by sharia law.

Under Iranian sharia law, certain crimes such as sodomy, rape, theft, fornication, apostasy and consumption of alcohol for the third time are considered to be "claims of God" and therefore have a mandatory death sentence.

Alireza is instead condemned to Tazir, a punishment that can be administered at the discretion of the judge, raising hopes that the judiciary might be able to change its mind over his case.

"Alireza's case is extraordinary and very exceptional," said Amnesty's Drewery Dyke. "There's no complainant in his case and the chief of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani, should intervene so that his life is spared."

Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian lawyer who has defended many convicts on death row in Iran in the past, said Alireza's case was unprecedented in Iran but the judiciary could spare his life since it was a Tazir punishment.

"Iran's judiciary has previously intervened to seek clemency for offenders like Alireza who have committed a Tazir crime," Mostafaei told the Guardian. "In his case, too, the judiciary chief can write to the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] and ask him to spare his life."

Farideh Gheyrat, another prominent Iranian lawyer, echoed Mostafaei, telling the New-York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Alireza's life should be spared under Iran's sharia law.

"According to the sharia law, if a convict survives execution his life is spared and they have not hanged twice anyone before as far as I know," she said.

Amnesty International has called on Iran to halt any plan to hang Alireza twice.

"The Iranian authorities must immediately halt Alireza's execution and issue a moratorium on all others," said Amnesty's Philip Luther.

"It is natural that the Iranian authorities must combat the serious social, security and economic problems relating to drug trafficking and drug abuse, but the reliance on the death penalty to combat drug trafficking is misguided and in violation of international law.

"People want to be protected from crime, but the death penalty does not make societies safer."