Execution oc children in Iran
Letter of the children's Lawyer to Iran's parliament
by SCE Campaign
14-Dec-2007
In the name of God, فارسي
To the head of the Islamic Parliament and its honorable members,
With Respectful Greetings,
It has been over four years that the proposed bill regarding the children and juveniles has been sent to the Parliament and at the moment it is under review at the legal and judiciary commission. Many human rights activists and lawyers inside Iran as well as international institutions and organizations such as UNICEF, Amnesty International and European Union, are awaiting the urgent passage of this proposed bill and the annulment of the death penalty for children under 18. I am the lawyer of 14 individuals whose age at the time of alleged commitment of crimes were less than 18 and have been sentenced to death and are now facing inevitable executions. I hereby express my concern about their imminent death penalty and the denial of their human right with respect to "the execution of children under the age of 18". I ask for the immediate ratification of the proposed bill based on, the age of legal responsibility of children with respect to determination of death penalty, the International conventions and the common practice by the vast majority of countries.
According to the unofficial statistics there are about 70 persons sentenced to death whose ages at the time of committing the crimes were under 18 and their sentences have been approved with all the possible legal procedures having been exhausted. Some have passed the final execution approval process of the honorable head of the judiciary (e.g.: Sattar Shiri in Rajai Shahr prison, Mousavi in Shiraz- Adelabad prison and Hamid Reza Tork in Hamedan prison) whom all have already been executed. Nevertheless one of the welcomed and acceptable practices of the legal and judiciary institutions as well as the view of the honorable head of the judiciary, has been that of seeking pardon from the parents of the victim, which in many cases has been fruitful and the child anticipating execution has been saved such as in the case of Sina Paymard where after asking for 1.5 billion Rials (apx. 150,000 dollars) by the parents of the victim, a new life was granted to him (Sina). It should be noted that the larger portion of this money was paid through donations and if the money was not donated , noone knows what could have awaited Sina.
This is happening while in most International conventions and documents, the death penalty for children under the age 18 has been prohibited. According to the article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child : "[No] capital punishment. shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age" and according to the article one of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: "a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". However there is one exception to this point and that is the prohibition of the death penalty for persons under the age 18 as the abovementioned article stated.
Another important and binding International document which Iran has also ratified in 1975 without any pre-conditions, is the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6 of the accord reads: "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law..." and thereafter regarding taking away the right to life of children, item 5 of article 6 of the accord establishes that "Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age". It was because of this accord that the vast majority of the countries in the world abolished the death penalty for children under the age of 18 and Iran is one of the very few countries where courts still carry the sentencing and the execution of the death penalty for these children.
In our country based on item B, article 209 of the Islamic sharia penal code, if a girls above the age of 9 (lunar calendar) and boys above the age of 15 (lunar calendar), commits a murder even if unintentional or without criminal intent : "In cases where the accused has intentionally committed an act that resulted is the death, even if (he or she) did not intend to kill, is considered an attempted murder" and are sentenced to death and after reaching the age of 18 and delaying the execution order, they put the noose around the (children's) neck and take away their life.
From a criminology standpoint, such punishment, against the most fundamental human rights, carries two separate sentences: One is to take away from the condemned the hope to continue life and the prisoner wakes up every day fearing that he may not see the next day. In other words the sentenced lives and dies hundreds of time a day, and the other is that eventually the death sentence ordered by the court and approved by the supreme court is exercised. Is it fair that a child who is still immature and incapable of adult reasoning who has unintentionally caused a death , be punished by hanging? Isn’t it better that through punishments other than death penalty, to give them a chance to rehabilitate. Without any doubts I testify that all my clients are sorry for their acts and they ask the almighty God for chance for life to spend the remainder of their life in the most humane way and by serving the society. The window of hope in their heart is so that some of them like Delara Darabi and Ali Mahin Torabi have continued their studies and have kept their cultural and artistic activities in prison.
Article 49 of the Islamic sharia code approved in 1991 excludes children from criminal responsibility and assigns their education, under the supervision of the court, to their appropriate care-takers or by request, to the correction centers. The first point of this article appreciates that "a child is someone who has not reached the adulthood age according to Sharia." This point has not established the clear age and has left it to Sharia. Given the fact that it is not acceptable that the lawmakers pass an unclear law which would give the authority to the courts to resort to article 1210 of the civil code where children above the age of 9 (lunar years) for girls and 15 (lunar year) for boys are to receive punishments exactly the same as adults, undermining International agreements and norms that Iran has also joined. For instance if a girl at the age of 10, or a boy at the age of 14 years and 11 months would commit a murder and the accusation is proven, the girl or the boy would be sentenced to death. Mohammad Latif at the age of 14 years and 11 months was taken into custody for homicide, and despite the belief of the medical experts of his lack of mental progress, he was sentenced to death and the Supreme Court also approved the sentence. Now at the age of 18 he is awaiting execution.
(See next page)
by SCE Campaign
14-Dec-2007
In the name of God, فارسي
To the head of the Islamic Parliament and its honorable members,
With Respectful Greetings,
It has been over four years that the proposed bill regarding the children and juveniles has been sent to the Parliament and at the moment it is under review at the legal and judiciary commission. Many human rights activists and lawyers inside Iran as well as international institutions and organizations such as UNICEF, Amnesty International and European Union, are awaiting the urgent passage of this proposed bill and the annulment of the death penalty for children under 18. I am the lawyer of 14 individuals whose age at the time of alleged commitment of crimes were less than 18 and have been sentenced to death and are now facing inevitable executions. I hereby express my concern about their imminent death penalty and the denial of their human right with respect to "the execution of children under the age of 18". I ask for the immediate ratification of the proposed bill based on, the age of legal responsibility of children with respect to determination of death penalty, the International conventions and the common practice by the vast majority of countries.
According to the unofficial statistics there are about 70 persons sentenced to death whose ages at the time of committing the crimes were under 18 and their sentences have been approved with all the possible legal procedures having been exhausted. Some have passed the final execution approval process of the honorable head of the judiciary (e.g.: Sattar Shiri in Rajai Shahr prison, Mousavi in Shiraz- Adelabad prison and Hamid Reza Tork in Hamedan prison) whom all have already been executed. Nevertheless one of the welcomed and acceptable practices of the legal and judiciary institutions as well as the view of the honorable head of the judiciary, has been that of seeking pardon from the parents of the victim, which in many cases has been fruitful and the child anticipating execution has been saved such as in the case of Sina Paymard where after asking for 1.5 billion Rials (apx. 150,000 dollars) by the parents of the victim, a new life was granted to him (Sina). It should be noted that the larger portion of this money was paid through donations and if the money was not donated , noone knows what could have awaited Sina.
This is happening while in most International conventions and documents, the death penalty for children under the age 18 has been prohibited. According to the article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child : "[No] capital punishment. shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age" and according to the article one of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: "a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". However there is one exception to this point and that is the prohibition of the death penalty for persons under the age 18 as the abovementioned article stated.
Another important and binding International document which Iran has also ratified in 1975 without any pre-conditions, is the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6 of the accord reads: "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law..." and thereafter regarding taking away the right to life of children, item 5 of article 6 of the accord establishes that "Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age". It was because of this accord that the vast majority of the countries in the world abolished the death penalty for children under the age of 18 and Iran is one of the very few countries where courts still carry the sentencing and the execution of the death penalty for these children.
In our country based on item B, article 209 of the Islamic sharia penal code, if a girls above the age of 9 (lunar calendar) and boys above the age of 15 (lunar calendar), commits a murder even if unintentional or without criminal intent : "In cases where the accused has intentionally committed an act that resulted is the death, even if (he or she) did not intend to kill, is considered an attempted murder" and are sentenced to death and after reaching the age of 18 and delaying the execution order, they put the noose around the (children's) neck and take away their life.
From a criminology standpoint, such punishment, against the most fundamental human rights, carries two separate sentences: One is to take away from the condemned the hope to continue life and the prisoner wakes up every day fearing that he may not see the next day. In other words the sentenced lives and dies hundreds of time a day, and the other is that eventually the death sentence ordered by the court and approved by the supreme court is exercised. Is it fair that a child who is still immature and incapable of adult reasoning who has unintentionally caused a death , be punished by hanging? Isn’t it better that through punishments other than death penalty, to give them a chance to rehabilitate. Without any doubts I testify that all my clients are sorry for their acts and they ask the almighty God for chance for life to spend the remainder of their life in the most humane way and by serving the society. The window of hope in their heart is so that some of them like Delara Darabi and Ali Mahin Torabi have continued their studies and have kept their cultural and artistic activities in prison.
Article 49 of the Islamic sharia code approved in 1991 excludes children from criminal responsibility and assigns their education, under the supervision of the court, to their appropriate care-takers or by request, to the correction centers. The first point of this article appreciates that "a child is someone who has not reached the adulthood age according to Sharia." This point has not established the clear age and has left it to Sharia. Given the fact that it is not acceptable that the lawmakers pass an unclear law which would give the authority to the courts to resort to article 1210 of the civil code where children above the age of 9 (lunar years) for girls and 15 (lunar year) for boys are to receive punishments exactly the same as adults, undermining International agreements and norms that Iran has also joined. For instance if a girl at the age of 10, or a boy at the age of 14 years and 11 months would commit a murder and the accusation is proven, the girl or the boy would be sentenced to death. Mohammad Latif at the age of 14 years and 11 months was taken into custody for homicide, and despite the belief of the medical experts of his lack of mental progress, he was sentenced to death and the Supreme Court also approved the sentence. Now at the age of 18 he is awaiting execution.
(See next page)
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