UN Experts: Iran Should Stop Planning Execution of Teenage Defendant Hamid Ahmadi
According to a report from the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR member organization defending human rights in Iran), 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 stop the planned execution of teenage defendant Hamid Ahmadi scheduled for Saturday, February 4 (Bahman 16). This is the third time Hamid Ahmadi has been scheduled for execution. 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 fight involving five young men in 2008. The court issued the verdict based on his confession, which according to reports, he made under torture and ill-treatment at the police station while deprived of a lawyer and contact with his family.
The UN human rights experts stated: “According to our information, in Hamid Ahmadi’s case, the explicit guarantees of fair trial and due process contained in international human rights treaties were not observed, claims of torture and forced confession were not considered, and no investigations were conducted in this regard.”
The experts emphasized: “All death sentences that contradict the state’s international commitments, particularly those issued based on confessions obtained under torture, are illegal and constitute arbitrary executions.”
Nevertheless, Iran’s Supreme Court, which in November 2009 (Aban 1388) had overturned the death sentence due to doubts about the testimony of several key witnesses, ultimately confirmed it one year later. Mr. Ahmadi was retried after the approval of regulations on sentencing minors in the Islamic Penal Code in 2013 (1392), but in December 2015 (Azar 1394) the criminal court of the province once again sentenced him to death.
The UN experts stated: “It is deeply regrettable that since the beginning of this year, there continues to be planning for the execution of minors, and these executions are being carried out at an unprecedented rate.”
“On January 17, we intervened in the case of another teenage execution. After that, we learned that two other minors were executed on January 15 and 18 (Dey 26 and 29). Arman Bahar Asemani and Hassan Hassanzadeh 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 the imposition and carrying out of death sentences for persons under 18 years of age. “Iran must respect its international commitments once and for all by ending the execution of juvenile offenders.”
They declared: “The planning for the execution of Hamid Ahmadi must be immediately stopped and his death sentence must be annulled. Furthermore, the execution of minors must be suspended without delay.”
Source: LDDHI
