Jan. 16
IRAN:
News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International
AI Index: MDE 13/005/2006 16 January 2006
Iran: Amnesty International calls for end to death penalty for child
offenders
Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian authorities to take
immediate steps to end the use of the death penalty for child offenders.
Two new cases have been reported in which child offenders - persons under
18 at the time of the crime - have been sentenced to death by Iranian
courts, in breach of Irans obligations under international human rights
law.
On 3 January, 18-year-old Nazanin was sentenced to death for murder by a
criminal court, after she reportedly admitted stabbing to death 1 of 3 men
who attempted to rape her and her 16-year-old niece in a park in Karaj in
March 2005. She was 17 at the time. Her sentence is subject to review by
the Court of Appeal, and if upheld, to confirmation by the Supreme Court.
According to reports in the Iranian newspaper, E'temaad, Nazanin told the
court that three men had approached her and her niece, forced them to the
ground and tried to rape them. Seeking to defend her niece and herself,
Nazanin stabbed one man in the hand with a knife that she possessed and
then, when the men continued to pursue them, stabbed another of the men in
the chest. She reportedly told the court "I wanted to defend myself and my
niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did
not know what to do because no one came to our help", but was nevertheless
sentenced to death.
Another child offender, 19-year-old Delara Darabi, was sentenced to death
by a court in the city of Rasht for a murder committed when she was 17
years old. She denied the killing but the sentence was upheld by the
Supreme Court at the beginning of January, though her lawyer is reportedly
appealing the decision.
The Persian language news service Aftab reported that Delara Darabi and a
19-year-old man, Amir Hossein, broke into a house intending to commit
burglary, but killed the woman who lived there. Delara Darabi initially
confessed to the murder, but subsequently retracted her confession and
stated that she had admitted responsibility for the murder at the request
of Amir Hossein, to help him escape execution, because he believed that
she would not be sentenced to death because she was under 18 at the time
of the murder. She said that she was under the influence of sedatives
during the burglary.
As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran
has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they
were under the age of 18. Nevertheless, Amnesty International has recorded
18 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In 2005 alone, at
least 8 executions of child offenders were recorded.
The Iranian authorities have been reported for about four years to be
considering passing legislation to ban the use of the death penalty for
offences committed under the age of 18. Despite this, over the past two
years, the number of child offenders executed has risen. Recent comments
by a judiciary spokesperson suggest that the new law would in any case
only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes when committed by
children, as he stated that "qisas" crimes (retribution - the sentence
issued in cases where defendants are found guilty of murder) were a
private, not a state matter. The majority of executions of child offenders
in Iran are cases of "qisas" where the individual has been found guilty of
murder.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states
compliance with the CRC, in January 2005 urged Iran to immediately stay
all executions of people convicted of crimes committed when they were
under 18, and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases.
On 9 December, Philip Alston, the United Nations Human Rights Commission's
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said
"At a time when virtually every other country in the world has firmly and
clearly renounced the execution of people for crimes they committed as
children, the Iranian approach is particularly unacceptable... It is all
the more surprising because the obligation to refrain from such executions
is not only clear and incontrovertible, but the Government of Iran has
itself stated that it will cease this practice."
Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian authorities to prevent the
executions of Delara Darabi and Nazanin and other child offenders, and to
take urgent steps to abolish the death penalty for all child offenders in
accordance with Iran's obligations as a state party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
All AI Documents on Iran:
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maaeoQAabnyS8bb0havb/
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