[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 24



IRAN:

International watchdog urges Iran to stop execution of 3 Kurdish teenagers



Amnesty International said on Friday that Iran must immediately halt the 
execution of 3 teenagers found guilty of crimes that were committed when they 
were under the age of 18.

One teenager was found guilty of waging war against God, allegedly under 
torture including electric-shocks and the 2 others were found guilty of murder.

“The Iranian authorities must act quickly to save these young men’s lives. 
Failing to stop their execution would be another abhorrent assault on 
children’s rights by Iran,” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Middle East and North 
Africa Director at Amnesty International.

International human rights law strictly prohibits the application of the death 
penalty for offenders under the age of 18 when the crime was committed.

Iran is often criticized by the UN and the international organizations for 
human rights violations. The Islamic Republic is 1 of only 4 countries known to 
have put child offenders to death since 2013. The United Nations Secretary 
General reported in early 2015 that “at least 160 juvenile offenders were 
reportedly on death row at December 2014.”

One of the teenagers, Shayan Saeedpour stabbed a person to death in August 2015 
when he was 17 while under the influence of alcohol. He surrendered at a police 
station voluntarily and was sentenced to death in October 2018.

“Shayan was under the age of 18 when he committed murder, his lawyer and we 
were shocked when we heard the Supreme Court had upheld the ruling,” Shayan’s 
father Salahaddin told Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, a respected 
Iranian human rights organization on February 17. “Shayan had no understanding 
of what he had done…moreover he was under the influence of alcoholic drinks 
when he committed the crime.” He was also sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking 
alcohol.

The 2nd teenager Barzan Nasrollahzadeh was 17 when he was arrested and later 
found guilty of ‘enmity against God’ which carries the death penalty. He says 
he was tortured by the agents of the intelligence ministry during his pre-trial 
detention including being suspended upside down and electric shocks applied on 
his body.

The 3rd teenager Mohammad Kalhori was 15 when he was arrested in late 2014 for 
the alleged stabbing of one of his school teachers. He was found guilty of 
murder in March 2016 and sentenced to three years in prison on the basis that 
he did not have a ‘mental growth and maturity.’ But the decision was overturn 
by the Supreme Court in January 2017 and his family have been told that he 
would be executed soon.

Under international and internal pressure in 2013 Iran revised its Islamic 
Penal Code limiting the execution of minors. However article 91 still allows 
the judges to pass the death sentence in the case of a minor. If offenders 
“under eighteen years do not realize the nature of the crime…or there is 
uncertainty about their full mental development…” the death penalty does not 
apply but the court “may ask the opinion of forensic medicine or resort to any 
other method that it sees appropriate in order to establish the full mental 
development.”

“Instead of sending more juvenile offenders to the gallows the authorities must 
commute all death sentences and immediately reform Iran’s Penal Code to abolish 
the use of the death penalty against all those who were under the age of 18 at 
the time of the crime,” Saleh Higazi of Amnesty said.

“This should be a first step towards abolishing the death penalty completely.”

(source: rudaw.net)