Amnesty International warns of imminent execution of young man in Iran for crime he committed as a minor

The humanitarian NGO Amnesty International (AI) recalled this Saturday that Iranian youth Hosein Shahbazi to be executed on Sunday after being convicted of a crime committed when he was 17 and that, complaint, was subject of forced confession and with null legal guarantees.

According to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s count, Shahbazi was 17 when he was arrested in 2018 for allegedly stabbing a classmate in a fight, meaning he was a boy at the time., as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a party.

In January 2020, Shahbazi, already imprisoned in Adelabad, in the city of Shiraz, was sentenced to death after being interrogated for 11 days without access to a lawyer or his family. During this time, according to UN reports, it was tortured and forced to confess to having committed the crime. Hosein’s mother denounced, after a visit to the prison, that her son had bruising on his face and appeared to have lost weight.

Although he admitted that Shahbazi was under 18 at the time of the crime, authorities assured that he had already reached mental development and maturity, according to an examination carried out by the Forensic Medicine Organization, a state forensic institution, and collected by the UN itself.

“Imposing the death penalty on a person who was a minor at the time the crime was committed is prohibited under international human rights law and violates Iran’s international obligations.Amnesty regrets.

“Iran continues to impose the death penalty on people under the age of 18 at the time of the crime, in violation of the state’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on Civil and Political Rights. children’s rights. In 2020, authorities executed at least three people who were minors at the time of the crime, and there are several dozen more on death row. That year, Iran carried out at least 246 executions, securing an embarrassing second place in the world ranking of executors, ”AI said in a statement released last June.

“The Iranian authorities must quash the conviction and sentence handed down against Hossein Shahbazi and grant him a new trial with due guarantees and in full respect of the principles of juvenile justice, without admitting “confessions” obtained under duress and without appeal. to capital punishment. We also call on the international community, including the UN bodies as well as the EU and its Member States, to intervene urgently to save the life of this young man, ”he said. Diana eltahawy, Amnesty International Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The United Nations recorded 233 executions last year, until the beginning of December, including three teenagers at the time of their alleged crimes.

Iran continues to sentence people to death for non-violent crimes, including drug trafficking.

In 2014, Reyhaneh Jabbari hanged in high-profile case after being convicted of murdering former intelligence official who she said tried to rape her.

The hanging of the 26-year-old drew widespread international condemnation.

(With information from Europa Press)

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