Child criminal Sajjad Sanjari executed in Dizel Abad prison, Kermanshah
On Monday, August 2, the death sentence of child criminal Sajjad Sanjari was carried out in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah. He was arrested in 2011 at the age of 15 on charges of murder and was ultimately sentenced to death.
According to HRANA News Agency, citing Amnesty International, at dawn on Monday, August 1, 2021, Sajjad Sanjari, a child offender, was executed in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah.
According to this report, his death sentence was carried out without his family being informed or allowed to meet.
“With the secret execution of Sajjad Sanjari, the Iranian authorities have once again demonstrated the absolute brutality of their justice system,” said Diana Al-Tahawi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. “The use of the death penalty against those who were under 18 at the time of the crime is absolutely prohibited under international law and constitutes a cruel attack on the rights of children.”
Noting that "secret executions without family visits are a worrying pattern of Iranian authorities carrying out executions in secret or at short notice to minimize the chances of public and private intervention [to prevent executions]," he called on Iranian authorities to amend the law to stop the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of the crime.
In 2011, when he was only 15 years old, Sajjad Sanjari killed a teenager of his own age in a fight. A fight between two children that resulted in the death of one of the parties and Sajjad becoming the murderer. Sajjad's case was followed up by the Imam Ali community, and after a while the victim's family agreed to accept the blood money and consented. The blood money was collected with public donations, but the victim's family has given up and says Sajjad should be executed.
This is despite the fact that Sajjad committed the murder when he was under 18 years of age, and according to international human rights law, his execution is illegal. In addition, Sajjad was not in a good mental state. It is worth noting that there is also a scenario that Sajjad committed the murder in response to the other party's attempt to rape him.
It is worth recalling that in January 2016, the spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the authorities of the Islamic Republic to halt the execution of Sajjad Sanjari, a teenager accused of murder.
According to the Center for Statistics, Publications and Works of the Human Rights Activists' Association in Iran, at least 236 citizens were executed and 95 others were sentenced to death in the one-year period (January 1, 2020 to December 20, 2020). Among the executed, it is worth mentioning the execution of 2 child criminals, as well as the location of 1 execution that was carried out in public.
According to the same report, more than 72 percent of executions carried out in Iran are not reported by the government or judicial institutions, which human rights organizations call "secret" executions.
Source: HRANA
