Iranian mum spares son's murderer from hanging with 'emotional slap'

A convicted killer in Iran due to be hanged for murder has been spared after the victim's mother had a last-minute change of heart.

The mother spared the life of her son's convicted murderer with an emotional slap in the face, as he awaited execution with the noose around his neck.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Balal, at 19, killed Abdollah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007.

Police officers led Balal to a public execution site in the northern city of Nowshahr as a large crowd gathered to watch.

Samereh Alinejad, mother of the victim, asked the onlookers whether they knew "how difficult it is to live in an empty house".

According to the report, Balal, black-hooded and standing on a chair before a makeshift gallows, had the noose around his neck when Alinejad approached and slapped him in the face and removed the rope from his neck, assisted by her husband, Abdolghani Hosseinzadeh, a former professional footballer.

Balal said the 'slap was the space between revenge and forgiveness'.