Delara Darabi, executed in Rasht on 1 May 2009

(1 May 2009)  Delara Darabi, who was charged at the age of 17 with murder, was executed today in Rasht.  Darabi was 22 years old. Authorities did not inform her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, that her execution was being carried out. According to Iranian law, lawyers must be given 48 hours notice of impending executions.

“The execution of Delara Darabi is an affront to human rights values and is in bold violation of Iran’s obligations with respect to international rights standards and covenants,” said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign. “What is more, her rights were trampled in an unfair trial.”

Darabi confessed to the murder of her father’s cousin to protect her friend, who assured her she would not be executed because she was a minor. Her trial and appeals have been riddled with complications and her case was sent back to Rasht by the Iranian Judiciary for review. Her father, in a taped interview, said that when he handed Delara over to police, he placed his trust in the judicial system. “I truly thought there would be some sort of justice,” he said.

Darabi’s execution was scheduled to be carried out on 20 April, but her lawyer was able to postpone it because relatives of the victim were not going to be present.  It is not known whether family members were present today at her execution.

“The continuing barbarity of juvenile executions is a debasement of the rights of juveniles and all the people of Iran, and is an obstacle to Iran’s international relations,” added Rhodes. “The practice needs to be outlawed, in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Iran is a party.”

Juvenile executions have gained increased attention within Iran in recent weeks. The Defenders of Human Rights Center issued a national call to action to end juvenile executions on 20 April 2009, with the support of a wide range of religious scholars, human rights and political activists and members of civil society. Mehdi Karoubi, a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, publicly called for an end to juvenile executions based on his education in Islamic law and the calls by human rights activists, in an article in Etemad Meli daily on 28 April. Kayhan, a newspaper controlled by the Islamic Republic, denounced Karoubi’s comments and accused him of propaganda against the system.

“The execution of Delara Darabi shows the hardliners’ oblivious reaction to calls raised throughout Iran by religious leaders, human rights activists, political activists and ordinary citizens,” said Rhodes.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran strongly condemns the execution of Delara Darabi and the continued execution of juvenile offenders in Iran.

The list is the result of comprehensive primary research by prominent Iranian human rights defender Emad Baghi. It forms part of his thus-far unpublished book “Right to Life II,” which demonstrates that such executions are not sanctioned by Islamic law as argued by Iranian authorities. The Iranian censors have not permitted the book to be published.Baghi’s book is the product of his research into religious sources arguing for the abolition of executions for child offenders. He compiles reliable and official sources for such executions carried out over the past decade. The book was distributed in limited numbers to Iranian officials in the Judiciary and the Parliament as well as to human rights defenders and organizations inside Iran. The Campaign has obtained a copy of “Right to Life II,” which documents approximately 177 execution sentences for child offenders over the past decade. Accordingly, 34 executions have taken place to date, another 114 are apparently pending, and the remainder have been pardoned.

Due to the lack of transparency in Iran’s judicial system, it is possible that some of the 114 juvenile offenders on death row may already have been executed.

Iran leads the world in executing child offenders. In 2008, Iran has carried two such executions: Javad Shojai on 26 February and Mohammad Hassanzadeh on 10 June.

“It is time for Iran to abolish the death penalty for child offenders. Even Judiciary officials within the system are against these executions, but do not dare to speak publicly,” Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesperson for the Campaign said.

The majority of child offenders on the list are accused of murder. However, as Baghi’s detailed research in his banned book shows, many sentences are based on confessions obtained from child defendants following torture and after interrogations in which they have had no access to a lawyer. Courts routinely ignore evidence presented by defendants demonstrating that they acted in self-defense.

According to Iran’s criminal code, boys may be subjected to penalties including execution at the age of 15 and girls at age of 9. Soghra Najafpour is a woman imprisoned in Rasht prison since 1990 when she was only 13 years old and accused of murder. Mosleh Zamani, another child offender, is sentenced to death for an “illicit relationship with his girlfriend.”

In the city of Firoozabad, Fars province, the execution of Abu Moslem Sohrabi, 17 at the time of his crime, is imminent, according to his father.

The Campaign called on Iran to immediately abolish the death penalty for child offenders. As a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is obligated to abolish such executions.

“We are calling upon the international community to denounce child executions in Iran and around the world, and to take concrete steps to convince the Iranian authorities that such uncivilized practices have negative consequences for Iran’s international and economic relations,” Ghaemi said.

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Your Excellencies,

I am writing to express my deep concern about the practice of executing minors and those who committed crimes as minors, a practice that contradicts the most fundamental moral and ethical principles of civilized societies.

Regrettably, Iran, a country that is heir to one of the world’s oldest civilizations, is among only eight states (including the United States of America) that have implemented this practice in recent years. According to the independent group Amnesty International, “[t]he USA and Iran have each executed more child offenders than the other eight combined and Iran has… exceeded the USA’s total since 1990 of 19 child executions.”

Indeed, according to Amnesty International since 2004 Iran has been responsible for over 70% of all juvenile executions that have occurred worldwide. Amnesty International also reports that presently there are at least 86 juvenile offenders on the death row in Iran.

I would like to express particular concern regarding the imminent execution of six juvenile offenders: Saeed Jazzi, Behnam Zare, Mohammad Reza Haddadi, Iman Hashemi, Saeed Reza Hejazi, and Ahmad Mortazavian. I urge you to stop their imminent executions and consider alternative sentences for all juvenile offenders on the death row.

Juvenile executions in Iran are a source of conflict between Iran and the international community because such executions are prohibited by international human rights law. As you know, in December 2007, the United Nations General Assembly has expressed concern about the “Execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed, contrary to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution went on to urge Iran “To abolish, as called for by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its report of January 2005, executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under the age of 18…”

The United States Supreme Court ruled such executions unconstitutional in March 2005. We urge you to also immediately abolish this practice. The degrading and horrifying execution of child offenders is a stain on Iran’s global reputation that interferes with the progress of building international cooperation and understanding; it diminishes most of all the reputation and well-being of the Iranian people.

With your leadership, juvenile executions can end in Iran. I respectfully ask your consideration of my appeal.

Sincerely,

Your Name