AI Index: MDE 13/031/2006 28 March 2006
URGENT ACTION
Iran: Further information on Imminent execution, Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/031/2006
28 March 2006
Further Information on UA 281/04 (MDE 13/040/2004, 07 October 2004) and
follow-up (MDE 13/042/2004, 14 October 2004) – Imminent execution
IRAN Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh (f)
The stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh on 12 October 2004
has been rescinded by the Supreme Court. Her execution is reportedly scheduled
to take place on or before 1 April 2006.
Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband.
She alleged that her husband was a drug addict who had tried to rape her
daughter from a previous marriage, who was 15 years old at the time. Apparently
he had previously told her that he had lost the girl in a gambling match.
Amnesty International does not know when she was arrested, but she may have
been tried in 2002.
The Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, had stayed
Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh’s execution after reading a letter written to him by
her daughter, entitled "Don’t render my hopes hopeless", in which she appealed
for clemency for her mother. Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was then held in Evin
prison in the capital, Tehran, whilst her case was sent to the second Division
of the Supreme Court for review. According to a report in the Iranian newspaper
Hamshahri on 15 March 2006, the Court has confirmed the death sentence against
Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh and has reportedly approved the execution. Her lawyer
was reported to be intending to ask the Head of the Judiciary to use his powers
to issue another stay of execution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman
and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to
which Iran is a state party. Article 6 of the ICCPR states: In countries which
have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for
the most serious crimes.
In 2005, Amnesty International recorded at least 94 executions in Iran,
although the true figure may be considerably higher.