Amnesty International Protests Execution of Teenager in Iran

Amnesty International has protested the execution of a teenager in Iran through a Twitter message.

In a message published on Wednesday, June 27, it stated: “We are saddened and angered by news of the execution of a young Iranian named ‘Aboulfazl Chezani’ by Iranian authorities this morning. This act is a complete violation of human rights and international law. We will publish more detailed reports on this matter later.”

Aboulfazl Chezani was arrested at age 14 on murder charges, and his execution violates all conventions that Iran has signed.

Iran is a signatory to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects individuals under 18 years old from the death penalty. However, some judges in the Islamic Republic, citing “religious maturity,” do not consider individuals between 15 and 18 years old as children.

Last February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Iranian government to halt executions of those convicted of crimes committed while under the legal age, citing an increase in executions of underage convicts in Iran in early 2024.

Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein announced at that time that three people in Iran who were 15 or 16 years old when they committed their crimes were executed in January, while approximately 80 others who committed crimes while under the legal age face execution sentences.

This senior UN human rights official further emphasized in a statement released on the matter that “the execution of juvenile offenders is prohibited under international law, without any ambiguity and regardless of the circumstances of the case and the nature of the crime they committed.”

According to him, in 2017, five convicts in Iran who were under 18 years old when they committed their crimes were executed; an action that violated international human rights law.

Source: Voice of America