Iran Human Rights Organization Responds to Judiciary’s Claims About Execution of Two Teenagers

Following claims by Iranian judicial authorities that two teenagers executed in Shiraz were over 17 years old, the Iran Human Rights Organization refuted these claims by publishing images of the individuals’ identity documents.

On Tuesday, Ordibehesht 17, the Iran Human Rights Organization released images of the identity documents of the two teenagers and announced that “both teenagers were approximately 17 years and 6 months old at the time of execution.”

“Mehdi Sobhani Far” and “Amin Sedaqat” were executed on Thursday, Ordibehesht 5, 1398 at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, Fars, while human rights sources had reported that these individuals were under 18 years old. However, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for the Judiciary, had denied the previous day that these two individuals were 17 years old.

But Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam, spokesman for the Iran Human Rights Organization, said regarding these executions: “In the past 5 years, nearly 40 child offenders have been executed in Iran, most of whom were between 15 and 18 years old at the time of committing the crime, and Iran is the world’s largest executor of children.”

According to him, Iran’s judicial system is so non-transparent that it does not announce more than 70 percent of executions carried out and is unwilling to respond to human rights reports.

Previously, the United Nations condemned the execution of these two teenagers and called on Iranian authorities to “immediately” stop executing those who committed crimes in childhood.

Source: Voice of America