IRAN: Another juvenile offender executed

Just two days after it “categorically denied” putting juvenile offenders to death, Iranian authorities hanged another youth criminal last week  -- the seventh so far this year, human rights organizations announced.

Local authorities in the province of Isfahan reportedly announced on a website on last week they had executed a man described as Gholamreza H. for murder. The Afghan national was 17 when he allegedly committed his crime.

According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, Iran is the only country to have executed juvenile offenders so far this year.

It also leads all countries of the world in executing juvenile offenders, accounting for more than 80 percent of such executions during the past 3 1/2 years.

Human rights organizations in Iran and abroad called on Iranian authorities to end carrying out capital punishment for persons who were under 18 at the time of the offense.

Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, commented on the latest execution of a juvenile in Iran:

“It is tragic that Iran is continuing to kill juvenile offenders.… Iran urgently needs to end its isolated position and abolish these executions.”

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were Iranian teenagers from the province of Khuzestan who were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashad northeast Iran, on July 19, 2005. Credit: File

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