The Presidency of the European Union condemns the execution of Behnoud Shojaee on 11 October 2009.
Shojaee was sentenced to death for a crime committed as a minor. The Presidency is concerned about the continued large-scale use of the death penalty in Iran, including the repeated executions of persons who committed crimes below the age of 18.
The Presidency recalls the EU's 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.