Iranian Human Rights Organization warns of possible execution of two "child criminals"

The Norwegian-based Iranian Human Rights Organization announced on Wednesday, May 4, the possibility of executing a "child criminal" in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz.

The accused has been identified as "Sasan M." According to the report, he was arrested at the age of 17 and sentenced to retribution on charges of premeditated murder.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization, citing the Rokna news website, wrote that this child criminal committed premeditated murder while playing soccer during a fight when he was 17 years old.

Sasan M. has been in prison for four years, and according to this report, the victim's family has requested a ransom of 500 million Tomans in exchange for the forgiveness of this child criminal, but the defendant's family cannot afford this amount.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization also warned on Tuesday, May 4, about the imminent risk of execution of another child criminal in Shiraz prison.

This prisoner is named Hamidreza Ajdari, who was also arrested at the age of 17 on charges of premeditated murder and sentenced to death.

According to this human rights organization, based on the available identification documents, Hamidreza Azhdari was over 18 years old at the time of the murder. However, his birth certificate is for the first child in the family, who was born two years before him and died, and Hamidreza Azhdari's parents used the birth certificate of their first child for him after his birth.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization has announced that all documents are preserved by the organization and can be made available to international institutions if necessary.

The execution of "child criminals" in Iran has been strongly criticized by the international community in recent years, and an important part of the reports of Javed Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, has always been devoted to it.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few countries that implements the death penalty for child criminals.

"Child offenders" in international law refer to individuals who are under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, and according to the Universal Convention on the Rights of the Child, they should not be subject to severe punishments such as the death penalty.

When executing criminals under the age of 18, Iranian authorities, citing Islamic law, consider the age of criminal responsibility as the age of 9 for girls and 15 for boys.

However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1993 and is obligated to comply with its provisions.

According to the annual report of the Iranian Human Rights Organization, the Islamic Republic executed at least two "child criminals" in 2021.

In the annual statistics of executions worldwide in 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran was also announced as the only country where defendants under the age of 18 were executed. According to Amnesty International, dozens of child criminals are currently living under the heavy shadow of the death penalty in Iranian prisons.

Most of these people have been sentenced to death for premeditated murder under the guise of “retribution.” Iranian authorities, citing Islamic penal code, leave the decision on these executions to the victim’s family (the “al-Awliya Dam”), while lawyers and human rights defenders say that under international law, the judiciary should be responsible for deciding on the punishment of the perpetrator.

Source: Voice of America