Young Man Sentenced to Execution at Age 16 Through ‘Qasama’ Acquitted of Murder Charges After 10 Years
Saleh Shariati, a young man who was sentenced to death at age 16 on murder charges through ‘Qasama,’ was released from Adel-Abad Prison in Shiraz in recent days following a Supreme Court ruling acquitting him after at least a decade in prison.
According to a report by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, the case of Saleh Shariati, who was released from Adel-Abad Prison in Shiraz on Thursday, June 30 following his acquittal by the Supreme Court, exemplifies a blatant disregard by the Islamic Republic’s judiciary for international human rights laws, fair trial standards, and accountability.
Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for Human Rights in Iran, noting that “punitive criminal laws in the judicial system and unfair judicial proceedings endanger the lives of innocent people and sometimes take their lives,” believes: “The tragedy that Saleh Shariati and his family suffered is the product of a dysfunctional judicial system.”
According to the human rights organization, Mr. Shariati was sentenced to death on murder charges at age 16 while initially being summoned to the Asaluyeh prosecutor’s office as a witness and informant in a case filed by the family of a victim whose son, working alongside Saleh as a farmworker, was killed after falling into a well on a farm.
Based on published information, Saleh Shariati was arrested 16 months after the death of the person with whom he worked on the farm, and without access to a lawyer or his family, was interrogated and tortured, ultimately being sentenced to death through Qasama by judges of Branch 3 of the Criminal Court of Fars Province on March 15, 2016.
A ruling that was confirmed on August 21, 2018 by Branch 20 of Iran’s Supreme Court. This ruling was ultimately reviewed, and the Judicial Deputy of the Judiciary assessed the ruling as contrary to religious law, and Branch 39 of the Supreme Court annulled the provincial court’s sentence and acquitted Saleh Shariati.
Qasama, which is one of the methods of proving the occurrence of murder and bodily harm in Islamic jurisprudence and Iranian criminal law, entered Iran’s Islamic Penal Code after the 1979 Revolution, and according to it, a judge can issue a ruling solely based on the oath of 50 men from the patrilineal relatives of the victim.
The Executive Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, noting that the judiciary should compensate for the years lost by this young man and the suffering imposed on him and his family, states: “The Islamic Republic of Iran must take necessary measures to ensure that no child faces such horrific injustice.”
Previously, Voice of America had reported in multiple reports, citing human rights organizations and Amnesty International, that at least 90 juvenile offenders in Iran face the risk of execution.
Amnesty International has repeatedly asked Iranian officials to completely abolish capital punishment for crimes committed by people under 18 by amending Article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code passed in 2013.
Iran is one of the last countries in the world that, in violation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, continues to apply the death penalty for crimes committed by people under 18 years old.
The U.S. State Department has also repeatedly condemned the repeated and continuous violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the regime governing that country in various cases.
Source: Voice of America
