[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 13




IRAN:

Iran regime is world record holder on execution of juveniles - NCRI


The mullahs' regime in Iran is the "world record holder" on execution of 
juveniles, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National 
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has told the International Business Times.

The Iranian regime's "alarmingly high" rate of juvenile executions is 
attracting growing criticism from international charities and has now started 
to gather increasing disapproval from within its own borders, the IBT wrote on 
Wednesday.

Iran's regime has executed more than 70 juvenile offenders in the past decade, 
according to several reports by Amnesty International this year, also showing 
the number of juveniles on death row was increasing.

"This [Amnesty] report sheds light on Iran's shameful disregard for the rights 
of children," said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's 
Middle East and North Africa Programme on the release of the report on 
juveniles. "Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile 
offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of 
the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the 
crime."

Mr. Boumedouha pointed out that under the Iranian regime's laws girls as young 
as 9 and boys as young as 15 can be sentenced to death.

Since the release of Amnesty's report on the alleged rise in executions, there 
has been a social media backlash at home against the use of capital punishment 
against minors, IBT reported.

Shahin Gobadi of the NCRI told the IBT: "The Iranian regime is not only the 
world record holder on executions per capita; it is the world record holder on 
execution of juveniles."

"Hundreds of juveniles, including activists of the opposition People's 
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), as young as 13 years old, were executed 
in the 1980s for their political activities."

"The regime's current gambit is to sentence the juveniles to execution, keep 
them in prison until they turn 18, and then execute them. There are scores of 
juveniles currently on death row."

"The stark reality is that there has been no respite under [the Iranian 
regime's President Hassan] Rouhani who some try to prop up as a 'moderate'. In 
reality the pace of executions has increased dramatically during his tenure, 
and that includes the execution of juveniles and women," he added.

(source: NCR-Iran)