“The Iranian authorities must urgently halt the planned execution of Zeinab Sekaanvand, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman arrested when she was 17 and convicted of the murder of her husband after a grossly unfair trial,” Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
“She is due to be executed by hanging as soon as this Thursday (13 October). Amnesty has launched an ‘Urgent Action’ campaign on behalf of Sekaanvand, with its supporters sending urgent appeals on the case to the Iranian authorities,” the statement said.
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director Philip Luther said: “This is an extremely disturbing case. Not only was Zeinab Sekaanvand under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, she was also denied access to a lawyer and says she was tortured after her arrest by male police officers through beatings all over her body.”
“Iran’s continued use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders displays the authorities’ contempt even for commitments they themselves have signed up to.
“The Iranian authorities must immediately quash Zeinab Sekaanvand’s conviction and grant her a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty.”
On October 9, the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement: “Zeinab Sekanvand comes from a village near Makou (Western Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran). She was forced into marriage when she was 15 due to her family’s poverty. After two years of painful life, she was arrested at age 17 on the charge of killing her husband.
“After her five years imprisonment, on October 3, Zainab was notified of the death penalty and since then she is on the death row.”
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran urges all international human rights and women’s rights organizations to take urgent action to save the life of Zeinab Sekanvan who is in the danger of imminent execution.