Amnesty: Iran regime shows brazen contempt for rights of children

The Iranian regime's judiciary has this week once again put on display its "brazen contempt for the human rights of children," Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Reports have emerged of a second execution of a juvenile offender in Iran in just a few days," Amnesty International said, "which reveal the full horror of the country’s deeply flawed juvenile justice system."

"Fatemeh Salbehi, a 23-year-old woman, was hanged yesterday for a crime she allegedly committed when she was 17, only a few days after another juvenile offender, Samad Zahabi, was hanged for a crime he also committed at 17."

"Fatemeh Salbehi was hanged in Shiraz’s prison in Fars Province despite Iran being bound by an absolute international legal ban on juvenile executions, and severe flaws in her trial and appeal. She had been sentenced to death in May 2010 for the murder of her 30-year-old husband, Hamed Sadeghi, whom she had been forced to marry at the age of 16."

"An expert opinion from the State Medicine Organization provided at the trial had found she had had severe depression and suicidal thoughts around the time of her husband’s death. However the death sentence was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court later that year."

Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said: “The use of the death penalty is cruel, and inhumane and degrading in any circumstances, but it is utterly sickening when meted out as a punishment for a crime committed by a person who was under 18 years of age, and after legal proceedings that make a mockery of juvenile justice.”

“With these executions the Iranian judiciary has yet again put on display its brazen contempt for the human rights of children, including their right to life. There are simply no words to adequately condemn Iran’s continued use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders,” Mr. Boumedouha said.

The statement by Amnesty International added: "In another appalling case eight days ago, another juvenile offender Samad Zahabi was secretly hanged in Kermanshah’s Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah province for shooting a fellow shepherd during a row over who should graze their sheep."

"This execution was also carried out without a 48 hour notice period being given to Zahabi's lawyer, as is required by law. Horrifically his family said they only learned of his fate after his mother visited the prison on 5 October 2015."

"Samad Zahabi had been sentenced to death by the Provincial Criminal Court of Kermanshah Province in March 2013, even though he had said both during the investigations and at the trial that the shooting was unintentional and in self-defence, and resulted from a fight that he was drawn into against his will."

Mr. Boumedouha added: “The Iranian authorities should be under no illusion that they can avoid international scrutiny until they adopt a categorical rule banning the use of the death penalty on any offender under 18 years of age.”

Iran's regime is scheduled to be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in January 2016. The Committee of the Right of the Child oversees the implementation of the CRC, which Iran ratified in July 1994.

"As a state party to the CRC, Iran has pledged to ensure that all persons under 18 years of age are treated as children and never subjected to the same punishments as adults. However, the age of adult criminal responsibility remains nine lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys," Amnesty said.

"Between 2005 and 2015, Amnesty International has received reports of least 75 executions of juvenile offenders, including at least three juvenile offenders in 2015. More than 160 juvenile offenders are believed to be currently on death row in prisons across the country."