Source: se2009.eu
The European Union is deeply concerned by reports of the imminent execution of Behnoud Shojaee and Safar Angoti, both convicted and sentenced to death for crimes committed as minors. The EU reiterates its past communication with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on both cases as well as its Declaration of 8 September 2009.
The EU further notes that the execution of Abbas Hosseini, also sentenced to death for a crime committed as a minor, scheduled to take place 5 October was cancelled. Mr Hosseini remains, however, at imminent risk of execution.
The EU notes that these executions would be a direct contravention of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s international commitments, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both clearly prohibiting the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed when they were minors.
The EU urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to commute the death sentences for Mr Shojaee and Mr Angoti, to abolish the use of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of eighteen and further to amend its legislation to bring it in line with the international human rights conventions that Iran has ratified, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The EU reiterates its longstanding opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances and recalls that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the application of capital punishment represents the irreparable and irreversible loss of human life. The Presidency continues to call on the Iranian authorities to abolish the death penalty completely and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions as urged by United Nations General Assembly resolutions 62/149 and 63/168.
