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PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/101/2008
25 July 2008
Further Information on UA 114/08
(MDE 13/065/2008, 29 April 2008) and follow-ups (MDE 13/066/2008, 08 May 2008,
and MDE 13081/2008, 12 June 2008) – Imminent execution
IRAN Behnoud Shojaee (m), aged
20, juvenile offender
The head of Iran's
judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, has granted juvenile offender
Behnoud Shojaee a further one-month stay of execution, to allow further
negotiations to take place between his family and relatives of the boy he was
convicted of killing. The families are negotiating over the payment of diyeh,
or financial compensation, in exchange for a pardon. Behnoud Shojaee is now
facing execution on or around 12 August.
Iran is a state party to international treaties including
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which expressly prohibit the execution
of those below the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offence.
Behnoud Shojaee was sentenced to
qesas (retribution) by Branch 74 of the Criminal Court in Tehran on 2
October 2006, after being found guilty of killing a boy named Omid the previous
year. During his trial, Behnoud Shojaee was not afforded legal representation.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Since 1990 Iran has
executed at least 30 juvenile offenders, seven of them in 2007 and two in 2008.
At least 85 other juvenile offenders, possibly many more, are now on death row
in Iran.
The family of a
murder victim have the right either to insist on execution, or to pardon the
killer and receive financial compensation. A convicted murderer has no right to
seek pardon or commutation from the state, in violation of Article 6(4) of the
ICCPR.
The execution of
juvenile offenders is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International
opposes the death penalty in all cases, and supports the global trend away from
the use of the death penalty, powerfully expressed in the UN General Assembly’s
resolution calling for a worldwide
moratorium on executions on 18 December 2007.
On 8 July 2008, during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Amnesty
International issued a joint statement with over 20 other international and
regional human rights organizations calling on Iranian authorities to stop
imposing the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders, and to
uphold their international obligation to enforce the absolute prohibition on
the death penalty in such cases. See Iran: Spare four youths from execution,
immediately enforce international prohibition on death penalty for juvenile
offenders, available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/iran-spare-four-youths-execution-immediately-enforce-international-prohi
For more information
about executions of juvenile offenders in Iran, please see: Iran: The last
executioner of children (Index: MDE 13/059/2007, June 2007), available at:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde130592007
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible,
in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language:
- calling for Behnoud
Shojaee's execution to be commuted;
- calling on the
authorities to stop executing those sentenced to death for crimes committed
when they were under 18, as this violates international law;
- acknowledging that
governments have a right and responsibility to bring to justice those suspected
of criminal offences in proceedings that meet international standards for fair
trial, but pointing out that no one should be executed for crimes committed
when under 18 and that the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment;
- calling on the authorities to pass, as a matter of
urgency, legislation abolishing the death penalty for all offences committed by
those under 18, in accordance with Iran’s obligations as a state party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
APPEALS TO:
Head of the
Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud
Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e
Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr
Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your
Excellency
COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency,
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:
dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email
and to diplomatic
representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND
APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
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