Iran Ranks First World-Wide for Executing Minors

Amnesty International, in a report published on Tuesday, ranked Iran number one world-wide for passing capital punishment verdicts on minors. The report shows clear violations of children’s rights in Iran, with statistics illustrating Tehran’s preparation for the execution of scores of adolescents who were arrested for crimes committed before them even reaching eight years of age.

Amnesty International’s report also showed that Iran had already carried out the execution of 73 minors between years 2005 and 2015.

Iran now numbers world-wide first for executing children, and for 2015’s executions that mounted up to 1084 death sentences, which is the highest recorded for Iran post the 1988 summer executions spree.

The report reveals that the 2014 UN reports, alongside reports of other international organization’s on the 160 minors sentenced to death might probably have much higher figures, taking into account that most capital punishment penalties in Iran are all issued and executed in secrecy with mystery wrapping up the whole process.

The presented report includes bitter stories of dozens of children that have spent their youth awaiting their execution; most children have lived up to 8 years in cubicles awaiting their execution.

Amnesty International’s Researcher on Iran, Raha Bahreini, assured Asharq Al-Awsat that children who have committed crimes whilst being minors are still considered children in the eyes of the international community and it is a clear-cut violation of human children rights to inflict death penalty or life sentence on them.

Moreover, researcher Bahreini added that Iran is one of the few countries enforcing a law that accredits their adult court judgment for nine-year-old female children and 15-year-old male children.

Despite being minors, females aged over 9 or boys over 15 are to be subjected to an adult judiciary process, which can end up with death sentences. This also reveals that gender bias in Iranian judiciary rule.

Moreover, Bahreini confirmed that the recent Amnesty International report has included 49 cases, in details, of minors convicted and sentenced to death. Over and above that, international organization discovered that over 160 teenagers have spent 7 to 8 years waiting for their death, which is an unquestionable inhumane mental torture.