The victim's parents remove the noose. (Arash Khamooshi /Isna via Sky News)
A convicted killer due to be hanged for murder has been spared after the victim's mother had a last-minute change of heart.
The 18-year-old victim's parents were expected to kick away the chair supporting the condemned man, named as Balal, at the public execution and send him to his death.
But once he was blindfolded and the noose put around his neck, she instead slapped his face and said she forgave him.
The father of the victim, Abdolghani Hozzeinzad, then removed the noose from around the man's neck as the convict's own mother ran up to embrace the woman who had saved her son.
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