Despite widespread international outrage and repeated calls by the United Nations General Assembly and the European Parliament on the Iranian regime to refrain from hanging or issuing death sentences for under-18 juveniles, the mullahs sentenced a 16-year-old to death on Sunday. He had been charged with murder.
On Saturday, Tehran Province’s 74th Criminal Branch sentenced another 18-year-old to death on the charge of murder. The victim was under 18 at the time of the alleged offense.
On July 20, the mullahs’ henchmen ruthlessly hanged two juveniles, one below the age of 18, at Mashad’s Edalat Square. Before being hanged, the victims received 228 lashes each. Both were 16 at the time of the alleged offense.
The daily Kayhan wrote on July 14 that a 20-year-old, named Ali Saffarpour Rajabi, had been hanged in public in the western city of Pol-e Dokhtar on the charge of killing a Revolutionary Guards officer. He was only 16 at the time of the alleged offense and had been imprisoned since 2001.
The rise in public executions, including those of juveniles, comes while the European Union has refused to table a censure resolution on Iran at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in the past three years. It has instead engaged in "human rights dialogue" with the murderous mullahs. The execution of juveniles is a direct result of this disgraceful dialogue.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran underscores that these executions are a blatant breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants. It calls for a halt in "human rights dialogue" with the henchmen ruling Iran, the condemnation of the mullahs by the world community and the appointment by the UN Human Rights Commission of a special rapporteur to investigate the situation of human rights in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 23, 2005
