UN Experts: Iran Must Stop Planning Execution of Teenage Defendant Hamid Ahmadi
According to a report by the Human Rights Organization for Iran (a member of the International Federation for Human Rights), a group of UN human rights experts including Asma Jahangir (Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran), Agnès Callamard (Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions), Nils Melzer (Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), and Benyam Dawit Mezmur (Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child), called on the Islamic Republic of Iran in Geneva to immediately halt plans for the execution of teenage defendant Hamid Ahmadi scheduled for Saturday, February 4 (Bahman 16). This is the third time Hamid Ahmadi has been taken to the gallows. In the two previous occasions, his execution was cancelled at the last moment.
Mr. Ahmadi was sentenced to death in 2009 (1388) at the age of 17 on charges of inflicting fatal knife wounds on a young man in a dispute among five young boys in 2008. The court issued the verdict based on his confession, which he allegedly made under torture and mistreatment at a police station while being deprived of a lawyer and contact with his family.
The UN human rights experts stated: “Based on our information, in Hamid Ahmadi’s case, the explicit guarantees of a fair trial and due process contained in international human rights treaties have not been observed, claims of torture and forced confession have not been considered, and no investigation has been conducted in this regard.”
The experts emphasized: “All death sentences that contradict the state’s international commitments, especially convictions issued based on confessions obtained under torture, are illegal and constitute arbitrary executions.”
Despite this, the Iranian Supreme Court, which in November 2009 (Aban 1388) had quashed the death sentence due to doubts about the testimony of several key witnesses, ultimately upheld it a year later. Mr. Ahmadi was retried after the adoption of regulations on death sentences for juveniles in the Islamic Penal Code in 2013 (1392), but in December 2015 (Azar 1394), the criminal court of the province sentenced him to death once again.
The UN experts stated: “It is deeply regrettable that as of the beginning of this year, there is still planning for the execution of juveniles, and these executions are even being carried out at an unprecedented rate.”
“On January 17, we intervened regarding the execution of another juvenile. After that, we learned that two other juveniles were executed on January 15 and 18 (Dey 26 and 29). Arman Bahar Asemani and Hassan Hasanzadeh were under 18 years old at the time they allegedly committed the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.”
These experts emphasized that international standards explicitly prohibit death sentences and their execution for persons under 18 years of age. “Iran must comply with its international obligations once and for all by ending the execution of juvenile defendants.”
They declared: “Planning for the execution of Hamid Ahmadi must be immediately halted and his death sentence must be commuted. Furthermore, the execution of juveniles must be suspended without delay.”
Source: LDDHI
