Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity
and rights. They ar e endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2:
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore,
no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which
a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the
slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7: All are equal before the law and are
entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation
of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
A state terror policy
IRAN /death penalty
April 2009
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 3
IRAN: DEATH PENALTY
Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
Historical overview ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Domestic legal framework: Crimes resulting in the death penalty ----------------------------- 8
International legal framework ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
The right to a fair trial ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Execution of juvenile offenders -------------------------------------------------------------------- 25
Religious minorities --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
Ethnic minorities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32
Methods of execution-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36
Conclusion and Recommendations ---------------------------------------------------------------- 45
This document has been produced with the nancial assistance of the European Union.
The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of FIDH and can under no circum-
stances be regarded as reecting the position of the European Union.
Cover picture: © Fars New Agency
Introduction
At a time when momentum is gathering across the world to abolish capital punishment
1
, the
Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) currently ranks second for number of executions, after China,
and rst for per capita executions in the world. According to the World Coalition against the
Death Penalty, Iran executed at least 317
2
people in 2007, almost twice as many as in 2006
and four times as many as in 2005. In 2008, at least 346 executions were recorded
3
. From
January through the end of March 2009, Amnesty International has recorded 120 executions.
These numbers are certainly below reality, since there are no publicly available statistics on
executions carried out in the country.
Alerted by the increasing number of executions on the one hand, and the persistence of practices
that expressly contravene international human rights standards relating to the death penalty
on the other, FIDH decided to carry out a study on the application of capital punishment in
Iran. The present report is based on documented research. The facts and gures in this study
are based on reports of the most reliable and non-partisan international human rights organi-
sations, including Amnesty International, FIDH, Hands off Cain and Human Rights Watch
(HRW). United Nations sources as well as newspapers published in Iran have also been used.
Furthermore, we have used the original Iranian government sources, i.e. the judiciary, the
parliament and other state organs, to access laws and regulations applicable in the IRI. It is
unfortunate that, despite repeated requests over the past few years, Iran has not yet allowed
FIDH to carry out a fact-nding mission within its borders
4
.
While exact gures are not available, occasional announcements of the authorities give rise
to estimates that a large number of people are currently on death row in Iran. The prosecutor
of the northeastern city of Mashhad announced on 17 September 2008 that there were 500
death-row convicts in that city for drug-related offences alone; others await death sentences on
different charges. Two weeks earlier, the police commander of Dashtestan, a town of 250,000
people in the southern Bushehr province, told a local newspaper that 150 people were on
death row in the town on charge of murder alone. In March 2007, Mr. Shahriyari, a Member
of Parliament for Zahedan conrmed in an interview that 700 people were on death row in
the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province.
A wide range of offences are punishable by death in Iran, ranging from a number of sexual offences
(e.g. fornication, adultery, sodomy, lesbianism, incest, rape) to drinking, theft, drug trafcking,
murder, and certain other offences (e.g. apostasy and cursing the prophet), ‘waging war’ on
people/God and ‘corruption on earth’ - offences that may extend from armed robbery to political
opposition or espionage. A number of economic offences are also punishable by death.
Executions are frequently implemented in large numbers. Over the past two years, for example,
the following were some of the collective executions that were recorded:
1. In December 2007 an overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) member states adopted resolution 62/149
“Moratorium on the use of the death penalty” calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran was
among the 54 states that voted against the resolution. In December 2008, the IRI was among the 46 states that voted against a
similar resolution; it was passed with 106 votes in favour.
2. Other sources reported higher figures (see Table: Minimum number of executions – below).
3. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/010/2009/en/03d99921-f378-11dd-b339-21ceadf1e5ba/mde130102009eng.
html
4. Requests were sent in particular in 2002, 2007 and 2008.
4 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
• 38 people were executed on 15 July and 2 August 2007, including 16 in public; 4 executions
were televised.
• 21 were executed on 5 September 2007
• 7 were hanged in public in Kerman on 13 September 2007.
• 31 were executed on 20 November 2007
• 23 were executed in the rst 10 days of 2008
• 10 were executed on 20 February 2008
• 9 were hanged in Birjand, one of them in public, in May 2008
• 3 were hanged in Ahvaz in May 2008
• 12 people were executed in Dashtestan in July 2008, four of them in public
• 29 were executed in Evin prison of Tehran on 27 July 2008
• 10 people, including a mother of two young children, were executed in Evin prison on 26
November 2008
• 9 people, including one woman, who had been condemned to retributive death sentence were
hanged in Evin prison on 24 December 2008
• 4 people, Arak central prison, 15 January 2009
• 6 people, in Esfahan prison, 17 February 2009
• 5 people, in Esfahan prison, 19 February 2009
• 11 people, in Kermanshah, on 2 March 2009
Despite a moratorium on public executions issued by the head of the judiciary in February
2008, many executions still take place in public, as may be noted in the case of the above-
mentioned executions in Birjand and Dashtestan.
The scope of this report does not extend to other violations of the right to life, in particular
extrajudicial killings and deaths in custody. The Islamic Republic has a long history of extra-
judicial executions, carried out both at home and abroad. The number of such executions
estimated to have taken place within Iran in the few years leading up to autumn of 1998 ranges
from 80 to 140. The gure would probably rise to a minimum of 400 if the cases abroad were
to be included. Many of those cases have not been and could not be documented.
As regards death in custody, it remains a very serious cause for concern in the Islamic Republic
of Iran. Well-publicised and best documented cases in recent years notably include the follow-
ing: Zahra (Ziba) Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, who was killed as a result
of a blow to her skull on 11 July 2003
5
. A student activist, Akbar Mohammadi
6
, died in Evin
prison on 30/31 July 2006. Valiollah Feyz-e Mahdavi, a People’s Mujahedin Organisation of
Iran (PMOI) member, also died in Evin prison, on 5 September 2006
7
. Ms Zahra Baniyaghoub,
a young general practitioner, died in a Hamedan detention centre on 13 October 2007
8
and
the authorities said she had hanged herself. Ebrahim Lotfollahi, a Kurdish law student died in
Sanandaj prison on 15 January 2008
9
. Amir Hossein Heshmat-Saran, a political prisoner, died
in Rajaishahr prison, near Karaj, on 6 March 2009. He was serving the fth year of his 16-year
prison term. Omidreza Mirsaya, a blogger, died in Evin prison, on 18 March 2009
10
.
5. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article2438
6. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article3625
7. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article3625
8. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/02/iran.roberttait;
http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5122 (In some sources initially she was referred to as Zahra Bani-Ameri ).
9. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5122
10. Press release of 23 March 2009, http://www.fidh.org/
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 5
6 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
© MEHR News Agency
Five people hanged
in the north-eastern
religious city of Mash-
had in August 2007
on charges of rape
and kidnapping
Historical overview
The death penalty has been in widespread use in Iran for many years, the gures jumping
drastically since the 1979 revolution. Immediately after the revolution, the new government of
the Islamic Republic, whose leaders had previously sided with criticism of the Shah’s human
rights record, launched a wave of executions. The rst year after the revolution bore witness to
the execution of a number of politicians, generals and secret police agents of the former regime
who had not managed to ee the country. A number of lower level police were reportedly not
spared either.
While the number of executions ranged around several hundred in the two years after the
Islamic revolution, a sharp increase was registered in 1981 following the bloody suppression
of the opposition groups and the clashes between the security forces and those groups, notably
the PMOI, in June that year. Amnesty International recorded 2,616 executions during 1981,
but the real gures are believed to be considerably higher. The trials, if any, were reportedly
summary and the defendants were not given the possibility to appoint lawyers or to present their
cases
11
. The victims in that year included a large number of juveniles and many women.
Massacre of 1988
The gures show a fall in the number of executions in subsequent years until 1988. In summer
of 1988, however, at the direct orders of Ayatollah Khomeini, the judicial authorities began
organising renewed summary trials for a large number of political prisoners, who had already
stood trial and were serving their prison terms; many were then executed. The IRI authorities
have never acknowledged the executions of that year and have consistently prevented attempts
by families of the victims to mark the anniversary of the executions each year. Over the last
few months, measures have been taken to demolish the Khavaran Cemetery, the burial ground
of some of those victims, prompting protests from their families and human rights organisa-
tions in Iran and abroad. On the other hand, sources from within
12
the IRI have alleged that
those executions took place in the aftermath of an offensive launched by the PMOI, under the
auspices of the Iraqi regime, in the summer of 1988 following a ceasere between Iran and
Iraq in their 8-year war. However, according to Ervand Abrahamian, professor of history at
Baruch College in the USA, the process and preparations for the mass executions began on
19 July 1988, ve days before the PMOI launched their offensive
13
.
Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the then designate-leader to succeed Ayatollah Khomeini,
whose protests against the executions cost him his title and led to his subsequent fall from
grace, has produced an undated hand-written letter of Ayatollah Khomeini to the judicial
ofcials in his memoires. In that letter, which makes absolutely no reference to the PMOI
offensive, Ayatollah Khomeini decreed that all prisoners who still adhered to their beliefs were
11. Amnesty International Annual Reports 1982 and 1983.
12. Pasdasht-e Haghighat (guarding the truth), a book written by Messrs Abbas Salimi Namin and Massoud Rezaei, both reputedly
former officials of the Ministry of Intelligence, in response to Ayatollah Montazeri’s memoires. It can be downloaded at: http://
forum.persiantools.com/t91833-page8.html (see # 116 on the list).
13. Tortured Confessions: prison and public recantations in modern Iran, Chapter 5, Mass Executions of 1988, P 209, University of
California Press, 1999 (For the pertaining excerpts see: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=_mnrYNIVfCgC&dq=Iranian+p
risons+Tortured+Confessions&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=np_Yb-Y_yd&sig=kc8XQqgN6IqEhcVAbC0ndQrKdSI&sa=
X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA209,M1).
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 7
‘mohareb’
14
who must be sentenced to death
15
. In a subsequent letter in reply to the then head
of the judiciary seeking clarication concerning prisoners already sentenced and serving their
sentences, the ayatollah reafrmed his decree
16
.
At the ayatollah’s express command, a three-member commission was set up in Tehran, consist-
ing of the chief religious judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts (Ayatollah Nayyeri), the
public prosecutor of Tehran (Mr. Morteza Eshraqi
17
) and a representative of the Ministry of
Intelligence (Hojjatoleslam Mostafa Purmohammadi
18
). Corresponding commissions were
also set up in the provincial capitals.
The commissions operated without any legal authorisation as de facto courts. All accounts are
unanimous that the subsequent summary “trials” lasted only a few minutes each without any
lawyers or any possibility of presenting defence. Most prisoners were not even told that they
were being tried again and were instead led to believe they were being questioned with the
purpose of being moved to other wards within the prisons. The prisoners, if they were members
of the PMOI, were questioned about their organisational afliation. If the answer was “the
Mujahedin” organisation, the proceedings came to an abrupt end and they were taken away
to be executed. If they answered “the Monafeqin”
19
, they would face further questions to test
if they had truly rejected their organisational allegiance. Many prisoners did not pass the tests
and were subsequently executed. Thousands of leftist prisoners were questioned concerning
their beliefs. When questioned about their belief in God, if they answered in the negative, they
were sentenced to death for apostasy or atheism and then executed. To borrow the words of
Professor Ervand Abrahamian, those tragic events resembled the Spanish Inquisition.
Estimates of number of executions since the Islamic revolution
The following table has been compiled mainly based on annual reports issued by Amnesty
International. However, gures from other sources have also been incorporated when available.
Both Amnesty International and other human rights organisations such as Hands Off Cain, that
started publishing its annual reports in 2000, have taken care to note in all their reports that
the actual gures could be much higher. Some reasons for the inaccuracies are as follows:
1. The Iranian authorities do not publish ofcial gures of executions.
2. There have been a large number of secret executions.
3. In the absence of ofcially provided gures, human rights organisations have to conne
themselves to perusing the newspapers to record the executions.
4. The newspapers do not report all executions and they are occasionally ordered not to report
them.
5. Information about executions in remote areas and provincial areas is especially hard to
collect.
6. Information was very scant in the rst few years after the revolution.
14. See footnote 41 and Armed and political offences section.
15. http://www.amontazeri.com/farsi/khaterat/html/0560.htm
16. http://www.amontazeri.com/farsi/khaterat/html/0561.htm
17. Many Iranian sources have confused Morteza Eshraqi with Ayatollah Khomeini’s son-in-law, the late Ayatollah Shahabeddin
Eshraqi, who died in July 1981.
18. Interior minister in the incumbent government of Mr. Ahmadinejad until May 2008.
19. Monafeqin means ‘hypocrites’ which is an epithet used by the IRI for the PMOI.
8 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Table: Minimum number of executions, 1979-2009 (March)
Amnesty International Hands Off Cain Other sources
1979 (Feb-Aug) 437
20
1979 800 – 1,000
1980 709
1981 2,616
21
1982
22
624
1983 399
1984 661
1985 470
1986 115
1987 158
1988 4,500-5,000
23
1989 More than 1,500
1990 757
1991 775 884
24
1992 330
1993 93
1994 139
1995 47
1996 110
1997 143
1998 “scores of people”
1999 165
2000 75 153
2001 139 198
2002 113 316 450
25
2003 108 154
2004 159 197
2005 94 113
2006 177 215
2007 335 355
2008 346 355 317
26
2009 (21 March) 120
20. AI Country Report 1980.
21. AI Report 1982 noted that in December 1981 Amnesty International knew of more than 3,800 executions since February 1979.
22. Amnesty International Report 1983 noted the total number of executions since the revolution through the end of 1982 as 4,605.
23. Amnesty International Report 1989 initially mentioned 1,200 executions. Then the AI 1990 Report raised the estimate for 1988
to 2,000. However, AI’s public statement in 2008 on the “20th anniversary of prison massacres” referred to between 4,500-
5,000 executions in 1988.
24. Human Rights Watch.
25. FIDH quoting opposition groups.
26. World Coalition against the Death Penalty.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 9
Domestic legal framework: Crimes
resulting in the death penalty
Under the Islamic Penal Code
27
(IPC) of 1991, punishments are divided into ve types. They
are: hodood
28
, qesas
29
, diyeh, ta’zirat
30
and deterrent punishments.
• Hodood are punishments whose type and scope have been determined by the Islamic shari’a
and cannot be commuted or pardoned.
• Qesas is a retributive ‘eye-for-eye’ punishment meted out for a range of offences.
• Diyeh (referred to as blood money) is nancial compensation as determined by the Islamic
shari’a and paid to the victim or his/her survivors.
• Ta’zirat are discretionary punishments that have not been determined by the Islamic shari’a
and judges have the power to decide them. They may include imprisonment, lashing, ne
etc.
• Deterrent punishments are punishments determined by the state, e.g. imprisonment, ne,
closure of business, deprivation from social rights, exile and other punishments.
The death penalty is meted out mostly under the hodood section, and the qesas section in the
case of murder, as well as once under the ta’zirat section for ‘cursing the prophet’. However,
the Iranian legal system distinguishes also between punishments considered to be the sole
‘right of Allah’ and those considered to be the ‘right of the people.’ The former have a ‘public
aspect’ and withdrawal of complaint shall not have any effect on them, e.g. punishment for
fornication. An example of the ‘right of people’ is qesas
31
or retributive punishment. Under
the law, the Supreme Leader
32
may grant amnesty if a crime violated the ‘right of Allah’ in
cases that do not fall under hodood punishments, but he cannot grant amnesty if the ‘right of
people’ has been violated.
A large number of extremely heterogeneous crimes entail the death sentence in Iran. In addi-
tion, the Bill for amendment of the IPC that will extend the scope of capital punishment, and
criminalise certain actions currently not regarded as offence, is a serious cause for concern
(This will be explained below).
27. Qanun-e Mojazat-e Eslami. All the references to and translations from the IPC in this report relate to the original Persian text
that includes amendments made in May 1998 and January 2002 (Deedar Publishing House, Tehran, 2002). For an English
translation of Articles 1-497, see http://www.iran-law.com/IMG/pdf/Iran_Criminal_Code_in_English.pdf. For another excerpted
translation, see http://www.iranhrdc.org/httpdocs/english/pdfs/Codes/ThePenalCode.pdf. Unfortunately, neither is completely free
from typos or other mistakes.
28. Also spelled hodud or hudud, plural for hadd.
29. qesas is retributory or retaliatory punishment and is applied to a series of various offences. Articles 204 -268 of the IPC deal with
retribution for murder.
30. Plural for ta’zir.
31. In the case of murder, it is qesas-e nafs, i.e. retribution for life. Qesas is meted out in a wide range of cases and it is extensively
detailed in the IPC. In November 2008, at the request of the victim, a court sentenced a man to be blinded by means of acid,
because he had thrown acid on and blinded a woman who had refused to marry him (see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/
iran/2008/11/081127_si-acidattack-blind.shtml). In another case in February 2008, the forensic medicine experts had refused
to enforce an “eye for eye” retribution sentence on a man (http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/02/post_6244.php).
32. Under the Constitution, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic is the Vali Faqih, literally the ‘Canonist Guardian’, who by
definition must be a theological jurisprudent. The Islamic Republic has had two supreme leaders, its founder Ayatollah Khomeini
and the incumbent leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
10 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Sexual Crimes
Fornication: Article 63 of the IPC denes fornication
33
as sexual intercourse between persons
not married to each other, i.e. “copulation of a man with a woman, who is naturally forbidden
to him, even from behind.” Fornicators shall be lashed 100 times. However, a man or a woman
who has been convicted for fornication several times shall be killed
34
on the fourth count,
provided that s/he has been convicted and received the lashing penalty in the previous three
instances (Article 90). However, Article 82 of the IPC species that the death penalty shall
be meted out to fornicators without exception in the following cases: incest, fornication with
stepmother (the man shall be killed), fornication of a non-Moslem with a Moslem woman (the
man shall be killed), and rape (the rapist shall be killed).
Adultery
35
: In the case of sexual intercourse between married men with single or married women
or married women with single or married men, the punishment stipulated by the IPC is stoning
of the married person. The single party in such a relationship would usually be sentenced to 100
lashes for fornication. In practice, the conditions set out for stoning are very detailed. Article
102 provides that “men shall be buried in a pit up to vicinity of the waist and women up to the
chest in order to be stoned.” Both hands of the condemned are also placed under the earth. And
Article 104 determines the size of the stones: “The stones used for stoning shall not be too large
to kill the condemned by one or two throws and not too small to be called a stone.”
Same sex relations: Anal sex [‘lavat’] is copulation
with a male with or without penetration
36
(Article
108, IPC). The penalty for anal sex involving penetra-
tion is death for both parties provided that they are
adults, mature and of free will (Articles 109 and
111), but consenting immature parties shall be lashed
74 times. The penalty for sexual conduct without
penetration [tafkhiz
37
] is 100 lashes. The penalty in
this case, on the fourth count, is also death, provided
that the condemned persons have been convicted
three times and received their ogging sentence in
those instances. Otherwise, if same sex relations
without penetration occur between a non-Moslem
and a Moslem as a passive partner, the former shall
be killed (Note to Article 121).
The penalty for lesbianism is also death on the fourth count, provided that the condemned
persons have been convicted three times before and received 100 lashes in those three instances
(Article 131).
33. Zena.
34. The words used in Article 90 are ‘koshteh meeshavad’ which may be translated as’shall be killed’. Subsequent articles have
used the word ‘qatl’ [killing], and not ‘edaam’, which is translated as execution.
35. Zena-ye mohseneh.
36. This contradictory definition is provided in the IPC for ‘lavat’. Nevertheless, a draft bill to amend the IPC (see Bill for amendment
of IPC below) has defined ‘lavat’ only as sexual conduct between men involving penetration beyond the tip of the glans, and
distinguished it from ‘tafkhiz’ (see the next footnote).
37. ‘ tafkhiz’ is defined in the Bill for Amendment of the IPC as ‘rubbing the penis between the legs of a male person even if the latter
is dead,’ and that includes ‘penetration prior to the tip of the glans.’
© FARS News Agency
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 11
Accusation of fornication & sodomy
38
: Anybody who accuses others of having committed
fornication or having been sodomised may be punished by death on the fourth count, provided
that the convict has received the due punishment of 74 lashes in the rst three instances
(Article 157)
39
.
Obscene audio-visual products: The Law for Punishment of Persons with Unauthorised
Activities in Audio-Visual Operations, passed in January 2008, prescribes the punishment
betting of the ‘corrupt on earth
40
’ persons for producers of obscene products by force, produc-
ers of such products intended for sexual abuse and principal perpetrators of those products
(Article 3). Under Article 4, persons who use such products to blackmail others “to fornicate
with them” shall be sentenced to punishment for rape. Consequently, all those offences can
be punished by the death penalty.
Drinking
Article 179 of the IPC foresees the death penalty for drinking alcoholic beverages on the third
count, provided that the condemned person has received the punishment of 80 lashes on each
of the rst two counts.
Theft
Theft is punishable by death on the fourth count even if it is committed in prison, provided
that the convict has received the due punishment in the rst three instances. Under the law, the
punishment for the rst time is amputation of four ngers of the right hand and for the second
time amputation of the left foot. A third-time thief is to be imprisoned for life (Article 201).
Armed & political offences
Section seven of the Hodood chapter of the IPC deals with two key concepts that also appear
frequently in other laws. They are moharebeh and efsad-e fel-arz
41
and may carry the death
sentence for the condemned. Article 183 of the IPC provides the following denition: “Anybody
who takes up arms to create fear and to divest people of their freedom and security is mohareb
and mofsed-e fel-arz.” Anybody convicted of being mohareb or mofsed-e fel-arz or both may
be sentenced to death at the behest of the ruling judge, who also holds the power of meting
out three alternative sentences (Article 190)
42
.
38. qazf means accusing someone of fornication or being the passive partner in sodomy.
39. This punishment is based on Verse 4 of the Al-Noor (The Light) Chapter of the Quran. Although there is no mention of execution
or the death penalty in that verse, there seems to be a consensus among leading Shiite canonists, past and present, on the
issue.
40. See the next footnote.
41. Both are Arabic terms. Moharebeh is the action of a mohareb (a warrior); efsad-e fel-arz (corruption on earth) is the action of a
mofsed-e fel-arz (‘corrupt on earth’). By implication, a mohareb is a ‘mohareb baa Khoda or a theomachist, a ‘warrior against
God’. A large number of members of the opposition groups were in various years, in particular in 1981 and 1988, executed for
‘waging war against God’.
Ayatollah Khalkhali defined ‘corrupt on earth’ as: “one who endeavours to promote and expand corruption on earth. Corruption
is something that causes degeneration and destruction and deviation of the society from its natural course.” (Mémoires Sayeh
publishing house, 2000). Ayatollah Khalkhali was a religious judge, appointed by Ayatollah Khomeini, who sentenced hundreds of
people to death in the summary group trials in 1979-80 and the early 1980s. Also see the section on Kurds.
42. The other three punishments are: ‘hanging from gallows’, ‘first amputation of the right hand and then of the left foot’ and
‘banishment.’ Giving details, Article 195 stipulates that ‘in crucifixion, the convict should not be tied in a way that would lead to
his death’ and ‘not be tied to the cross longer than three days.’ The term crucifixion is a reference to the punishment of ‘hanging
from gallows’ as in Article 190. Furthermore, according to a frequently invoked 1993 fatwa of the incumbent Supreme Leader,
12 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Persons convicted of crimes committed with arms such as armed robbery and highway banditry
shall be deemed as mohareb, if they use arms to undermine people’s security and create terror
and fear (Article 185).
The provisions of this section of the IPC also address some of the anti-government activities.
Articles 186 -188 indeed refer to political offences, although they carefully avoid the use of the
term. Under those articles, all members and sympathisers of groups or organisations ‘waging
armed insurrection against the Islamic government’ are regarded as mohareb and mofsed-e fel-
arz and may receive the death sentence, even if they were not personally involved in military
action. The provisions of the law are not conned to armed activities alone. “Anybody or any
group plotting to topple the Islamic government, who procures arms and explosives for this
purpose, or anybody who knowingly provides facilities… for such purposes, shall be deemed
as mohareb and mofsed-e fel-arz” and may be sentenced to death.
Assassination attempt on Iranian and foreign leaders: Assassination attempts on the
‘leader, heads of any of three branches of power and the ‘sources of emulation
43
’ may carry
the death sentence. This may be inversely deducted from the wording of Article 515 of the
IPC, which provides for an ‘imprisonment sentence of 3-10 years if the culprit is not proved
to be a mohareb.’
‘The same punishment as under Article 515 could be meted out to anybody making an assas-
sination attempt on foreign heads of state or foreign ambassadors, provided that the country
in question reciprocated in relation to Iran (Article 516).
Armed Forces: Anybody who ‘incites the ghting forces or other persons serving the armed
forces somehow to rebel, desert, surrender or not to perform military duties, shall be deemed
to be a mohareb, if their intention is to topple the government or the defeat of the forces facing
the enemy…’ (Article 504). While this is the only instance of reference to offences related to
the armed forces in the IPC, the Armed Forces Offences Law mentions numerous crimes that
may be punished by the death sentence.
Passed in December 2003, the said law stipulates that military personnel, and any civilian
convicted of perpetrating offences in connection with military personnel, shall be deemed as
‘mohareb’ in numerous cases, including spying. A few examples include: devising plans to
topple the government or effective involvement in an association for that purpose, taking action
to harm the territorial integrity of the country, surrendering the personnel or bases under their
command or submitting documents to the enemy, conspiring with the enemy, helping a govern-
ment at war with the country or the mohareb and mofsed groups, taking armed action against
the Islamic Republic, providing the enemy with documents and information harmful to the
security of military facilities, submitting secrets of the armed forces to the enemy, disobeying
commands leading to enemy’s domination of territory or the army’s personnel, failing to use
Ayatollah Khamenei, judges may and do sentence moharebs to serve their banishment sentence in prisons. It is to be noted that
those sentences are issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Courts. However, many veteran judges of general courts deem such
sentences to be unlawful, because that fatwa has not been made into law. This is a problem that regularly arises, as may be
noted in other cases; for example the disregard of some judges for the moratoria issued by the head of the judiciary on stoning
sentences or hanging in public.
43. A source of emulation (marja-e taqlid) is usually a grand ayatollah who has written, among other religious books, a
comprehensive catechism (‘resale-ye amaliyeh’), which lay Shiite Moslems use to emulate him in questions relating to religious,
personal and social conduct.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 13
weapons or other facilities to ght hence leading to the defeat of the ‘Islamic front’, willfully
sleeping while on guard duty against enemies and the moharebs, on the condition that the
action leads to disruption of the national security or the defeat of the ‘Islamic front’ (Articles
17, 19, 20-24, 29-35, 37, 39, 42-44, 51, 65, 71-74, 78, 87, 92-94, 115).
Offences related to religion
Apostasy
44
: Article 26 of the Press Code of 1985 expressly states: “Anybody who insults
Islam and its sanctities by means of the press, amounting to apostasy, shall receive the sentence
for apostasy…” However, the applicable IPC has not dened apostasy nor has it stipulated
any punishment for it. Nevertheless, Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which has
incorporated the provisions of Article 167 of the Constitution almost verbatim, has given
judges a free hand
45
. Thus, judges have invoked the said Article 214 to mete out the death
sentence in many apostasy cases on the basis of the views of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder
of the IRI
46
. In his book, Ayatollah Khomeini declares that only three groups of people are
recognised outside of Islam, who should pay a specic tax, jazieh, if they wish to live under
the Islamic rule: Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. He expressly declares: “Nothing shall be
accepted from others outside of those three groups but Islam
or death
47
.”
Cursing the prophet
48
: This section is the closest that the
applicable IPC comes to addressing apostasy though the
wording of the law is rather vague and allows extensive
interpretation. “Anybody who insults the sanctities of Islam
and/or any of the grand prophets or the infallible imams or
[prophet Mohammad’s daughter] shall be executed if the case
is considered to be cursing of the prophet…”(Article 513).
Murder
Murder is punishable under a section of the IPC headlined
qesas
49
. The Iranian legal system considers murder to be a
matter between private parties and therefore does not refer
to its punishment as the ‘death penalty’ or execution. Theo-
retically, it is not the state but the survivors of the victim
44. ertedad.
45. Article 167 of the Constitution provides: “… In the absence of [applicable laws, a judge] shall issue a judgment on the basis of
authoritative Islamic sources and authentic fatwas.”
46. The ayatollah’s book, Tahrir ul-Vassileh (http://www.melliblog.blogfa.com/post-301.aspx), has formed the backbone of the penal
codes since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as well as the new draft bill intended to amend the applicable penal code (See also
Planned legislation section below for details). The website of the theological teachers of Qom, dubbed as the religious capital of
Iran, www.hawzah.net , stipulates that apostasy carries the death sentence and explains The ayatollah’s book, Tahrir ul-Vassileh
(http://www.melliblog.blogfa.com/post-301.aspx), has formed the backbone of the penal codes since the Islamic Revolution of
1979 as well as the new draft bill intended to amend the applicable penal code (See also Planned legislation section below for
details). The website of the theological teachers of Qom, dubbed as the religious capital of Iran, www.hawzah.net , stipulates that
apostasy carries the death sentence and explains Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1989 death sentence on Salman Rushdie in that context
(http://www.hawzah.net/Hawzah/Vijeh/vijeh.aspx?id=52197).
47. Tahrir ul-Vassileh, Vol. IV, bilingual text, P 249 (http://www.melliblog.blogfa.com/post-301.aspx).
48. sab un-nabi.
49. qesas is retributory or retaliatory punishment and is applied to a series of various offences. Articles 204 -268 of the IPC deal with
retribution for murder.
14 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
© ISNA News Agency
A man is hanged from
a crane on the street
on charge of killing an
Islamic Revolutionary
Court judge
or ‘heirs of the blood’ who impose retribution on the culprit. In practise, in qesas cases the
judicial authorities execute the murderer, if the family of the victim demand execution of the
murderer. Survivors of a murder victim may alternatively decide to withdraw their demand
for retribution (i.e. execution) of the murderer in exchange for nancial compensation (diyeh)
and let the murderer free.
The legal provisions relating to murder are discriminatory on several levels as follows.
Impunity for certain murderers: Even though it is not expressly stated, the IPC does not
treat all murderers equally. Murder may be retaliated only if the victim did not deserve to die
under the provisions of the shari’a (Article 226). This provision has been further underlined
in Article 295 (Note 2), which reprieves people who “kill someone in the belief that they
are enforcing retaliation or if the murdered person is a person whose blood deserves to be
wasted
50
...” This killing with impunity provision has given room to fanatic extremists to take
the law in their own hands. In March 2003, six members of the paramilitary Baseej
51
organi-
sation were arrested in the southeastern city of Kerman and charged with killing two women
and three men, amidst reports that a total of 18 people had been killed by similar methods
throughout the preceding year. After a lengthy process involving several trials, Branch 31 of
the Supreme Court repealed the qesas sentences against the six defendants in early 2008 on
the grounds that “they believed the victims deserved to have their blood wasted, they [the
murderers] were members of families of martyrs… and had offered evidence to substantiate
their belief in court.
52
”
While killing with impunity may be resorted to in cases of legitimate defence (Article 629),
victims of the Kerman murders were killed on the grounds that they had allegedly committed
vice. By implication, the notion of killing with impunity may also be employed to kill anybody
‘deserving’ a retaliatory death penalty. The IPC, for example, expressly provides for impunity
of the killer of adulterers. “A husband who sees his wife committing adultery with another
man may kill both of them in that position, if he is sure that the woman has consented; if the
woman is reluctant, he may kill the man only…” (Article 630).
Discrimination between Moslems and non-Moslems: The IPC does not prescribe retaliation
if a non-Moslem is killed. Retaliation for murder applies if the victim is a Moslem or if both
the murderer and the victim are non-Moslems. “If a Moslem is killed, the murderer shall be
subjected to qesas…” (Article 207; emphasis added). On the other hand: “In the event that
an indel
53
intentionally kills another indel, s/he shall be subjected to retribution even if the
two are followers of different religions…” (Article 210).
Discrimination in favour of fathers and grandfathers: In February 2008, a man took the
law into his own hands when he stoned his 14-year-old daughter, Sa’eedeh, for her relationship
with a boy in Zahedan (Quds newspaper, 13 February 2008)
54
. The man said that he had shot
his daughter four times after stoning her. There have been no further reports as to how the
50. mahdur ud-dam, literally meaning a person whose blood may be wasted.
51. Baseej, meaning mobilisation, is the paramilitary organisation under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(IRGC).
52. http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/05/post_7233.php
53. Followers of Christianity, Judaism or Zoroastrianism (Tahrir ul-Vassileh, Vol. IV, bilingual text, P 249).
54. Daily Etemad of 17 February 2008 reported the girl’s name as Sommayeh.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 15
judiciary has dealt with the case. However, under the patriarchal provisions of the IPC, “a father
(or paternal grandfather) who kills his child” (or grandchild) “will not be sentenced to qesas
but to payment of diyeh [compensation] to survivors of the victim and ta’zir [discretionary
punishment]” (Article 220). Survivors of the victim, i.e. the mother if the father is the killer
(or parents, if the grandfather is the killer), generally forgo the demand for punishment.
Economic offences
Some economic offences are also considered capital crimes. The Law for Punishment of
Disrupters of the National Economic System
55
, passed in 1990, stipulates the death sentence
for certain offences, if they are intended to ‘strike at the Islamic Republic of Iran or combat
it or if they are committed with the knowledge that they are effective in combating the said
regime, provided that they amount to corruption on earth’
56
(Article 2). The offences include
but are not limited to: disrupting the monetary or exchange system through major acts of
smuggling, disrupting the distribution of staple diets through overpricing on a macro level or
speculating, and disrupting the production system (Article 1).
Drug- related offences
The Law for Amendment of the Anti-Narcotics Law & Annexation of Other Articles to It
(November 1997) lays down the death sentence for drug-related offences in several instances.
They include: planting poppies or coca, or cannabis with intention to produce drugs, on the
fourth conviction; smuggling more than 5 kilograms of opium, cannabis or grass etc into Iran;
buying, keeping, carrying or hiding more than 5 kilos of opium and the other aforementioned
drugs, on the third conviction; smuggling into Iran, dealing, producing, distributing and export-
ing more than 30 grams of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their derivatives.
Other capital offences
Under an amendment to a law passed in 1967, in the event of death as a result of consumption
of foodstuffs, drinks, cosmetics or sanitary items, the producer, preparer or mixer may face the
death sentence (Article 3 of amendment dated 8 March 1975). Some other specic laws have
also stipulated the death sentence, e.g. the Law for Punishment of Disrupters of Oil Industry,
the Law for Punishment of Disrupters of Water, Electricity and Telecommunication Facilities,
the Law for Punishment of Disrupters of Flight Security, the Law for Punishment of Offences
concerning Railways, the Law for Increase of Punishment for Arms Smuggling.
Bill for amendment of IPC
The applicable Islamic Penal Code has been in place since 1991 on a ‘trial basis’
57
. In Novem-
ber 2007, the judiciary submitted a new bill for a permanent legislation. The Bill for amend-
55. Qanun-e mojazat-e ekhlalgaran-e dar nezam-e eqtessadi-ye keshvar.
56. See footnote 41.
57. The applicable IPC was initially approved by the Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee of the majlis in 1991 on the basis of Article
85 of the Constitution, under which the House may assign the task of legislation to one of its committees. In that case, the law
in question will be in force on a trial basis for a specific period of time. In 1991, the IPC came in force for five years and then in
early 1997 its trial period was extended for another 10 years. Since 2006 the trial period has been extended three times, one
year at a time.
16 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
ment to the Islamic Penal Code
58
, which the parliament [majlis] passed in its rst reading,
i.e. the generalities, in September 2008, indeed overhauls the IPC in many ways, and has an
impact on the application of the death penalty. When passed in its nal reading, it has to be
approved by the Council of Guardians
59
to become a law. However, there is little chance that
this conservative body will reject it for the incompatibility of its provisions with international
human rights laws.
Death sentence withdrawn or its scope reduced in the bill
The draft bill has omitted the death penalty in some cases and reduced its scope in other
instances. These include the following:
1. S a m e s e x relation s be t w e e n m e n : If the relationship involves penetra-
tion, the active partner shall not be killed unless he has forced the other party
or if he is married. The passive partner shall still receive the death penalty.
If it does not involve penetration, each party shall receive 100 lashes. But the active partner
shall still be killed if he is not a Moslem.
2. Lesbianism: The only penalty mentioned is 100 lashes.
3. Accusation of fornication or sodomy: The only penalty mentioned is 100 lashes.
4. Cursing the prophet: The scope has been reduced to swearing at the prophet of Islam, his
daughter or the 12 infallible imams or accusing them of fornication or sodomy. Thus, by
implication, insulting the sanctities of Islam or other prophets would no longer carry the
death sentence.
5. Drinking: The only punishment mentioned is 80 lashes.
Scope of death sentence widened in the bill
The scope of the ‘corruption on earth’ and ‘moharebeh’ cases that carry the death sentence has
been widened under the draft bill. Anybody who commits the following vaguely-worded offences
on an ‘extensive level’ shall be found to be ‘corrupt on earth’ and receive the punishment for
moharebeh: actions against the internal or external security of the country, disruption of the
economy, arson, destruction and terror, distribution of dangerous poisonous and microbiological
matters, and establishment of prostitution and corruption centres (Article 228-10).
The draft bill is, however, contradictory regarding the punishment for the ‘corrupt-on-earth’
and mohareb persons. On the one hand, “a mohareb shall receive the death penalty if s/he has
killed somebody” (Article 228-5-1). On the other hand, even if it is not certain whether s/he
has killed anybody, s/he shall be sentenced to death, e.g. “any group that wages armed insur-
rection based on political theory against the Islamic Republic of Iran is an insurgent group
[and its members] who use arms and explosives shall be regarded as mohareb and sentenced
to death” (Article 228 – 11). Therefore, one may be sentenced to death only for being armed
without having committed murder.
58. For the full text in Persian, see http://www.dadkhahi.net/law/Ghavanin/Ghavanin_Jazaee/layehe_gh_mojazat_eslami.htm
59. The Council is made up of 12 members. Six are Islamic canonists, who are appointed by the Supreme Leader and the other six
are jurists, elected by the majlis from among those nominated by the head of the judiciary. Only the first six have jurisdiction
to comment on compatibility of legislations with Islamic shari’a and ratify or return them to the House for amendment. The full
Council checks the compatibility of legislations with the Constitution.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 17
18 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
The draft bill also provides for the death sentence in the following cases, which are not included
in the law currently applicable.
Apostasy, heresy & witchcraft
60
: Articles 225-1 through 225-14 of the bill discuss these
topics. An apostate is any Moslem who denies Islam and converts to indelity. There are two
types of apostates. An innate apostate
61
is a person born to Moslem parents and therefore a
Moslem. A parental apostate
62
is a person born to non-Moslem parents, who converts to Islam
after maturity and later denies Islam. The punishment is death in both cases, though the latter
shall be given three days to repent, in which case he shall escape death. The related provisions
enforce ‘positive’ discrimination for female apostates, who shall be given life imprisonment
in both cases.
This provision has for the rst time introduced the crime of apostasy in the penal code. The
applicable laws do not contain any provisions on apostasy. Nevertheless, this exclusion did
not prevent the execution of a large number of members of opposition groups on charges of
apostasy or atheism in both 1981 and 1988. There have been few reports on apostasy cases in
recent years. According to a 21 December 2008 report, a man by the name of Alireza Payghan,
claiming to be the 12
th
imam of the Shiite and author of a book on the topic, was sentenced on
charge of apostasy and executed in Qom on 18 December. He had been arrested in November
2006 and, based on rulings of “some sources of emulation”, had been found to be an apostate
and a “corrupt on earth” person. The government newspaper, The daily Iran, did not report on
Payghan’s claim, only noting: “he was spreading warship of superstition”. In 2007, another
man by the name of Darvish, also claiming to be the 12
th
imam, had been executed in Qom.
Ayatollah Khomeini’s book, Tahrir ul-Vassileh, is the most frequently invoked source in
apostasy cases. The draft bill’s denitions of an apostate as well as the pertaining punishments
have been taken from that book, as have many other denitions and punishments
63
.
Heresy: Anybody who claims to be a prophet is to be condemned to death and any Moslem
who devises a heresy and based on it creates a sect, which is detrimental to Islam, shall be
considered an apostate, and thus subject to the death sentence. While Christianity, Judaism and
the Zoroastrianism are recognised under the Constitution, this provision seems to be directed
at followers of the Baha’i minority, who have suffered ongoing persecution since the 1979
revolution (see section on Religious minorities).
Witchcraft also carries the death sentence. The draft bill does not rule out the reality of
witchcraft, nor does it condemn non-Moslems in this relation: “Any Moslem who is involved
with witchcraft and promotes it in the society as a profession or a sect shall be condemned
to death.”
60. For an English translation of this section see http://rezaei.typepad.com/hassan_rezaei/2008/02/index.html
61. mortad-e fetri.
62. mortad-e melli.
63. Tahrir ul-Vassileh, by Ayatollah Khomeini, original Arabic text, volume 2, page 494. The Persian translation of the related section
is available on page 243 of volume 4 of the bilingual text (http://www.melliblog.blogfa.com/post-301.aspx). For an actual court
verdict based on Ayatollah Khomeini’s apostasy fatwa, see the 1994 verdict issued in Sari, Mazandaran, at:
(http://www.hoghooghdanan.com/lawblog/article12.html).
Other draft legislation
There is another short piece of legislation in progress that is referred to as “the bill for intensi-
cation of punishments for disturbing psychological security of the society
64
.” The bill indeed
overlaps with the IPC and the draft bill mentioned above supposed to amend it. It is likely that
legislators will later incorporate the provisions of “the bill for intensication of punishments
for disturbing psychological security of the society” in the draft bill for amendment of IPC.
The new short piece of legislation was passed in its rst reading in July 2008 and has not
yet been nalised. Article 2 outlines the offences the bill would address as “banditry
65
and
armed robbery, rape, forming of corruption and prostitution gangs, establishment of blogs and
websites that propagate corruption, prostitution and atheism , smuggling of humans for sexual
purposes, evil-doing, kidnapping for the purpose of rape or extortion.” Article 3 stipulates the
punishment for these offences to be the same as those for ‘mohareb’ and ‘mofsed-e fel-arz’ if
“the offenders do not deserve any other punishment.”
Once again the vague wording leaves it wide open to interpretation to determine what actions
qualify as “evil doing” or “corruption.” Furthermore, if and when passed, the new legislation
could be used as a tool against the rights to freedom of expression and access to information
through the Internet.
64. “Tarh-e tashdeed-e mojazat-e ekhlal dar amniyat-e ravani-ye jame’e”.
65. Elhaad; The IPC and the draft bill have not mentioned atheism.
© FARS News Agency
© ISNA News Agency
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 19
One more bill being deliberated in the parliament concerns smuggling of arms and ammunition.
According to the bill, which was passed in the rst reading (the generalities) on 16 December
2008, keeping of heavy weapons, armed resistance of such perpetrators against government
agents, smugglers of radioactive and microbiological stuff and armed resistance of smugglers
of military or chemical explosives against government agents can be punished by death
66
.
66. http://www.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8709260378
© Vahid Salemi / AP
© ISNA news agencyv
© Getty Images
20 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
1. Public execution
2. Public execution
3. A police officer
putting the noose
around a man’s neck
1
3
2
International legal framework
Iran is a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) since
1975. Article 6 of the Covenant enshrines the right to life, and provides that:
“In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only
for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of
the crime (…) Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation
of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted
in all cases. Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below
eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. Nothing in this article
shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party
to the present Covenant.”
The last time the Human Rights Committee overseeing the implementation of the Covenant
examined the report of the Islamic Republic of Iran was in 1993. At that time, the UN Human
Rights Committee deplored “the extremely high number of death sentences that were pronounced
and carried out in the IRI during the period under review, many of which resulting from trials
in which the guarantees of due process of law had not been properly applied. In the light of
the provision of article 6 of the Covenant, requiring States parties that have not abolished the
death penalty to limit it to the most serious crimes, the Committee considers the imposition of
that penalty for crimes of an economic nature, for corruption and for adultery, or for crimes that
do not result in loss of life, as being contrary to the Covenant. The Committee also deplores
that a number of executions have taken place in public
67
.”
Since that time, the Iranian authorities have not submitted periodic reports to the treaty body
under the Covenant. Such a report has been due since 1994.
The IRI also ratied the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994. It made, however,
a general reservation under which “The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves
the right not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with
Islamic Laws and the international legislation in effect.” In that regard, the UN Committee on
the Rights of the Child, a body composed of independent experts, expressed its deep regret “that
no review has been undertaken of the broad and imprecise nature of the State party’s reservation
since the submission of the initial report. It reiterates its concern that the nature of the general
reservation potentially negates many provisions of the Convention and raises concern as to its
compatibility with the object and purpose of the Convention.” The Committee consequently
reiterated “its previous recommendation that the State party review the general nature of its
reservation with a view to withdrawing it, or narrowing it, in accordance with the Vienna
Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights of 1993
68
.”
The Convention notes, “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years”
(Article 1) and “recognises that every child has the inherent right to life” (Article 6). “Neither
capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for
offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age” (Article 37).
67. CCPR/C/79/Add.25, 3 August 1993, Para 8.
68. Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/15/Add.254, 31 March 2005, paras 6 and 7.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 21
The Iranian Civil Code stipulates: “Rules and treaties concluded, in accordance with the
Constitution, between the Iranian government and other governments shall have the force of
law” (Article 9). It may therefore be concluded that the Convention has the force of law in
Iran, under which no person under the age of 18 should be sentenced to death
69
.
The last time it examined the respect by the Iranian authorities for their obligations under the
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
urged the State party “to take the necessary steps to immediately suspend the execution of all
death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crime before the age of 18, to take
the appropriate legal measures to convert them into penalties in conformity with the provisions
of the Convention and to abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons for having
committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37 of the Convention.
70
” The
same Committee had already issued a similar recommendation in 2000
71
.
The Committee also reiterated its serious concern with article 220 of the Islamic Penal Code,
which provides that a father who kills his own child, or a grandfather who kills his son’s child,
is only required to pay blood money and is subjected to a discretionary punishment and recom-
mended that “the State party take the necessary measures, including the amendment of the
offending article of the Penal Code, to ensure that there is no discriminatory treatment for such
crimes and that prompt and thorough investigations and prosecutions are carried out”
72
.
In addition, the Committee notably urged the State party to:
– review its legislation so that the age of majority is set at 18 years of age and that minimum
age requirements conform with all the principles and provisions of the Convention and with
internationally accepted standards, and in particular that they are gender neutral, in the best
interests of the child, and ensure that they are enforced (para 23);
– suspend immediately, for an unlimited period of time, the imposition and execution of the
death penalty for crimes committed by persons under 18, and to take all measures to imple-
ment paragraph 30 of the present Concluding Observations;
– suspend immediately the imposition and execution of all forms of torture, and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, such as amputation, ogging or stoning, for
crimes committed by persons under 18 (para 73).
To date, it appears that the Iranian authorities have not implemented any of the recommenda-
tions issued by both the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child concerning the death penalty.
In the General Comment on Article 6 of the ICCPR, adopted in 1982, the Human Rights
Committee established that this article “refers generally to abolition [of the death penalty] in
terms which strongly suggest (...) that abolition is desirable. The Committee concludes that all
measures of abolition should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life”
73
.
The same General Comment stated that death penalty should be reserved only for the “most
69. This interpretation has been adopted by Mr. Mostafaei, a human rights lawyer, who represents nearly two dozen death-row
juveniles: http://mostafaei.blogfa.com/post-15.aspx
70. Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/15/Add.254, 31 March 2005, para 30.
71. CRC/C/15/Add.123, 28 June 2000, para. 30.
72. Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/15/Add.254, 31 March 2005.
73. UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 6 on the right to life (art. 6), 30/04/1982, paragraph 6.
22 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
serious crimes”, which is interpreted as meaning that death penalty should not be awarded
for crimes beyond intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences
74
.
The Human Rights Committee established under the ICCPR has stated that “the imposition
of the death penalty for offences which cannot be characterized as the most serious, including
apostasy, committing a third homosexual act, illicit sex, embezzlement by ofcials, and theft
by force, is incompatible with Article 6 of the Covenant
75
.”
In 1984, the UN Economic and Social Council adopted the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection
of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty. In the same year, the Safeguards were endorsed,
endorsed by consensus by the UN General Assembly. Safeguard 1 states: “In countries which
have not abolished the death penalty, capital punishment may be imposed only for the most
serious crimes, it being understood that their scope should not go beyond intentional crimes,
with lethal or other extremely grave consequences
76
.”
As specied by the UN Commission on Human Rights, States should “ensure that the notion of
“most serious crimes” does not go beyond intentional crimes with lethal or extremely grave conse-
quences and that the death penalty is not imposed for non-violent acts such as nancial crimes,
nonviolent religious practice or expression of conscience and sexual relations between consenting
adults
77
.” It is clear that the scope of the death penalty in Iran encompasses far more than what
international law considers ‘the most serious crimes’.
As noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions in his 2005 annual report,
“the legislation of a signicant number of States provides for the death penalty to be mandatory
in certain circumstances. The result is that a judge is unable to take account of even the most
compelling circumstances to sentence an offender to a lesser punishment, even including life
imprisonment. Nor is it possible for the sentence to reect dramatically differing degrees of
moral reprehensibility of such capital crimes.”
78
However, for an important number of crimes
in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the death penalty is a mandatory sentence, in violation of
international human rights standards.
Lastly, every year since 2003, the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on the
human rights situation in Iran, which consistently raises the issue of the death penalty
79
. The
resolutions adopted in December 2007 and December 2008 request the UN Secretary General
to present a detailed report on the human rights situation in the IRI
80
.
74. General Comment on art. 6 of ICCPR, para 7.
75. Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Sudan under Article 40 of the Covenant, UN document No.
CCPR/C/79/Add.85, 19 November 1997, paragraph 8,http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/bc310a747155dff88025655300537
fae?Opendocument (24 March 2005).
76. U.N. Economic and Social Council, Resolution 1984/50, “Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the
Death Penalty”, ECOSOC/Res/1984/50, 25 May 1984,
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_comp41.htm
77. Resolutions 1999/61, 2000/65, 2001/68, 2002/77, 2003/67, 2004/67 and 2005/59.
78. E/CN.4/2005/7, para. 63.
79. Para. 1d of A/RES/58/195 (December 2003), Para. 3j of A/RES/59/205 (December 2004), Para. 2d of A/RES/60/171 (December
2005), Para. 2d of A/RES/61/176 (December 2006), Para. 1c, 1d and 3a, b, c and d of A/RES/62/168 (December 2007),
and resolution as voted in the third committee of the UNGA in November 2008, para. 2a, b, and c, and para. 3a, b, c and d of
A/C.3/63/L.40.
80. See UNGA Resolution 62/168 and 63/191.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 23
The right to a fair trial
The Iranian Constitution enshrines various rights closely connected to the right to a fair and
independent trial: equal protection by the law (Art. 20)
81
the right to recourse to the courts
(Art. 34), the right to counsel (Art. 35), sentencing in accordance with the law (Art. 36), the
presumption of innocence (Art. 37), and the prohibition of torture (Art. 38). However, those
rights are widely jeopardised because of the total dependence of all state institutions- including
the judiciary - on the Supreme Leader.
As noted by the UN Secretary General in his recent report on the human rights situation in
the Islamic Republic of Iran:
“Despite the separation of powers provided for in article 57 of the Constitution, the Supreme
Leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supervises the executive, legislative and judicial
branches and other key institutions. This is reinforced by the system of advisory councils
provided for in the Constitution. The Guardian Council is composed of six theologians appointed
by the Supreme Leader and six jurists nominated by the judiciary. It has the power to veto
the bills passed by Parliament if it views them as being inconsistent with the Constitution
and sharia law. The Expediency Council serves as an advisory body for the Supreme Leader
with an ultimate adjudicating power in disputes over legislation between Parliament and the
Guardian Council. The Assembly of Experts, comprising clerics elected through a general
election, has the power to appoint and remove the Supreme Leader. The Supreme Leader
appoints the head of the judiciary who in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the
Chief Public Prosecutor
82
.”
In addition, special tribunals issue the largest number of death sentence, for example the
Islamic Revolutionary Courts deal with certain categories of offences, including crimes against
national security and narcotics smuggling as well as a number of other offences. A Special
Court for Clergy (SCC) deals exclusively with offences committed by clerics or other people
if the offence is somehow related to the clergy. Special tribunals are also set up arbitrarily. For
example, the setting up of a special court under the auspices of “special judicial complex for
security affairs” in Sistan-Baluchistan province in 2006 has led to a drastic rise in executions
in the province. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, during its visit to Iran in
2003, raised concerns about the impact of such courts on the principle of equality before the
law. The Working Group called for their functions to be transferred to the ordinary courts
83
.
81. The same Article refers to all “human, political, economic, social and cultural rights” but unfortunately qualifies it with “in
compliance with the Islamic tenets.”
82. Report of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, A/63/459, 1 October 2008,
paras. 9 and 10, accessed at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/530/75/PDF/N0853075.pdf?OpenElement.
83. E/CN.4/2004/3/Add.2, 27 June 2003, paras 51 and 56, and recommendation 1, accessed at http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/
UNDOC/GEN/G03/147/77/PDF/G0314777.pdf?OpenElement
24 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Structure of the Iranian judiciary
* Appeals against sentences of death, amputation, expropriation and conscation of property and
imprisonment over 10 years are referred to the Supreme Court, not to appeals courts.
** The prosecutor may decide to refer investigation of a case to an examining magistrate or to one
of his assistants.
While, in theory, the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are included in the structure of the judici-
ary, they still retain an administration which operates separately from the justice departments
that are supposed to oversee them. On the other hand, the Special Court for Clergy (SCC)
is completely independent of the judiciary and runs its own parallel and highly secretive
judicial system, equipped with a prosecutor and appeals courts as well as its own specic
detention centres and prisons. Unlike the sentences of general and Islamic Revolutionary
Courts, even the death sentences issued by the SCC are not examined by the Supreme Court,
but rather by the SCC appeals courts. Details of SCC cases occasionally leak to the news
media notably when they involve politically prominent individuals.Whereas Article 159 of
the Constitution requires the establishment of courts and their jurisdiction to be determined
by law, legislators have never passed any legislation to sanction the establishment of the SCC.
When dealing with non-political cases, it can commonly take several years for a death penalty
case to reach the nal stage of execution. Many common criminals have been known to spend as
many as 10 years or more on death row throughout the course of different appeals and investiga-
tions by the Supreme Court and, in the past in some cases, the deliberations of the Discernment
Branch
84
of the Supreme Court
85
. On the other hand, most political capital cases reach the nal
stage rather quickly, in the span of a year or two, which in some way may be regarded as a progress
in comparison with the minutes-long trials of the 1980s. Nevertheless, political capital cases are
routinely sent to certain branches of the Supreme Court that have a notorious record for ignoring
the bills of defence and upholding the death sentences issued by the courts of rst instance.
84. According to a 19 October 2001 amendment to the Law for Establishment of General and Revolutionary Courts, the Discernment
Branches of the Supreme Court were assigned to examine appeals against finalised sentences to see if they are in contravention
of law or shari’a-sanctioned evidence. Each branch consisted of five judges of the Supreme Court, who were appointed by the
head of the judiciary. Their decisions were final and not subject to appeal, unless the head of the judiciary found those decisions
in contravention of shari’a-sanctioned evidence. Those branches were also empowered to prescribe retrial. Those branches were
dissolved under a February 2007 amendment to the law.
85. Occasionally in some qesas cases, a death-row prisoner is made to wait several years for the children of the victim to reach
majority in order to decide his/her fate, i.e. to demand retribution or to accept financial compensation.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 25
Head of Judiciary
President of Supreme Court Prosecutor General
Province's ProsecutorSupreme Court
Province's Courts
(Appeals Courts)*
General Courts Islamic Revolutionary Courts
City Prosecutor**
Examining Magistrates
Assistant Prosecutors
The right of defendants to have access to a lawyer during detention, interrogation and prelimi-
nary investigations is not recognised. Article 128 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides
that even the presence of a lawyer at the stage of investigation in “cases of offences against the
national security shall require the court’s permission.” FIDH is not aware of any case whereby
the courts have permitted it. Judges have the power to bar lawyers from accompanying the
defendants or even detain or imprison the lawyers if they protest against unfair proceedings
or in some cases if they publicly shed light on unfair proceedings.
In many courts, the judge plays the role of the interrogator, prosecutor and judge all at the
same time. In many criminal and in particular political trials, where the prosecutor or his
representative appear, there is no difference between the attitude of the judge, who is expected
to be neutral, and that of the prosecutor. In the overwhelming majority of criminal and political
cases, judges do not presume that defendants are innocent until proved guilty. The guiding
principle appears to be the other way round: defendants are guilty unless proved innocent.
In an example from 2007, in the case of bombings in the Khuzestan province by Arab ethnic
minority activists, several of the lawyers involved were detained and then charged with acting
against national security after they had published a letter in which they protested against the
trial procedures and the court’s refusal to allow them to visit their clients. Though the lawyers
in this case were later acquitted there have been other well-known cases of lawyers repressed
because of their work. In 2005, the Tehran prosecutor charged Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani, a
well-known human rights lawyer, with spying and waging propaganda against the regime.
He spent more than seven months in detention and was sentenced to ve years imprisonment
and ve years deprivation from social services. Later, the appeals court acquitted him of all
charges. Another lawyer, Mr. Nasser Zarafshan, who represented the family of a victim of the
1998 serial killings of writers and intellectuals, spent ve years in prison, from 2002-2007,
on charges of revealing information about the case
86
.
This denial of defendants’ right to a lawyer and direct condemnation of lawyers doing their job
blatantly violate the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which state that Governments
shall ensure that “lawyers ( a ) are able to perform all of their professional functions without
intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; ( b ) are able to travel and to
consult with their clients freely both within their own country and abroad; and ( c ) shall not
suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for
any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics”
(Para. 16). The same Basic Principles further add: “Lawyers shall not be identied with their
clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions” (Para. 18).
86. See annual Reports of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT.
26 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Execution of juvenile offenders
Iran ranks as the world’s top child executioner. Most other countries have stopped the practice
as a result of international and domestic pressure
87
. Since 1999 through March 2009, at least
42 executions of juvenile offenders have been recorded in Iran, 12 of them in 2007 and eight
in 2008, though the true gures are likely to be higher.
Iranian authorities have occasionally claimed that nobody under the age of 18 is executed
in Iran. Most recently, President Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran youngsters are not executed.
Where have they been executed? Our law actually sets 18 as the criminally liable age for
capital punishment”
88
. Unfortunately, this statement bears little resemblance to reality, which
becomes clear in looking at the facts as shown in the table below or with an examination of
the applicable laws in Iran.
Indeed, laws exist, which are quite clear on this issue. For example, the Islamic Penal Code
does stipulate that children are free from criminal liability, but it denes a child as “a person
who has not reached the age of pubescence as stipulated by the sharia” (Article 49 and its
Note). Further, the Iranian Civil Code that had previously set the age of maturity at 18 was
amended in 1982 as follows: “The age of pubescence for boys is fteen lunar years and for
girls nine lunar years
89
” (Note 1 to Article 1210).
There have been some attempts to make those provisions compatible with the requirements of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but those attempts do not go far enough.
In August 2006, parliament approved the Bill for Establishment of Children and Juveniles
Courts in its rst reading. The bill retained the IPC’s denition of a child, i.e. “a person
who has not reached the age of pubescence as stipulated by the sharia”. But it stipulated
the punishment of 2-8 years imprisonment in regard to capital offences committed by young
people between ages of 15 and 18. Nevertheless, it contained a vaguely worded provision that
would still empower judges to sentence minors to death. According to its Article 33, in qesas
and hodood punishments, the court shall issue the said reduced sentence only “if the maturity
and complete mental health of the culprit is in doubt.” In July 2007, the Parliamentary Judicial
Affairs Committee began examining the bill in detail, but it has neither been debated by the
full House nor been made into law as of yet.
Before that in March 2005, the government had submitted “The Bill for Investigation of
Offences of Children and Juveniles” to parliament. Finally, after a few years, parliament started
deliberating it in late 2008 and passed it in the rst reading (generalities) on 14 December.
That bill also stipulates that young people between 15 and 18 years of age would be held in
young people’s correction centres from 2-8 years for offences legally punishable by death or
life imprisonment (Article 33). Nevertheless, it is silent on the question of qesas and hodood
punishments.
87. As of July 2008 there were 3 juvenile on death row in Saudi Arabia, 3 in Sudan and 1 in Yemen. Other than Iran, only Saudi
Arabia executed 1 juvenile in 2007. In 2008, Iran has been the only country to execute juveniles (see Juvenile offenders log in
annex).
88. The New York Times interview, 26 September 2008.
89. There are 354 days in a lunar year, which would make boys just over 14.5 solar years old and girls 8.7 solar years old.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 27
A similar trend is noticeable in the draft Islamic Penal Code, which has been approved in
parliament’s rst reading in September 2008 (see Planned legislation above). There are contra-
dictory denitions of a child in the said bill. Even though it sets the age of pubescence as 15
years for boys and 9 years for girls, it denes a child as “a person under the age of 18 solar
years” (Article 141-1). It also stipulates that in the case of “hadd offences, pubescent children
shall receive the punishments prescribed by the Law for Investigation of Offences of Children
and Young People, provided that they do not understand the nature and forbiddenness of the
crime” (Article 141-4). This provision will clearly give judges a free reign to issue the death
sentence if they personally conclude that the under-age culprits did understand the “nature and
forbiddenness of the crime.” Evidently, parliament shall be required to make compatible the
provisions of the two bills, i.e. the Bill for Investigation of Offences of Children and Juveniles
and the draft Islamic Penal Code, and resolve their contradictions.
As illustrated in the table below, the widespread practice in Iran is to keep a minor convicted
of a capital crime in prison until s/he grows to the age of 18 and then execute him/her.
On 15 October 2008, Hossein Zebhi, Assistant Prosecutor General for Judicial Affairs, said that
according to a circular letter of Ayatollah Shahroodi, head of the judiciary, juvenile offenders
would no longer be executed
90
. Three days later, he retracted his statement. On 18 October,
he asserted that qesas (retribution) “is the private right of the people, and the judiciary cannot
intervene in” qesas cases, thus implying that executions of juvenile offenders would still be
carried out. Indeed 11 days later, on 29 October, the judicial authorities hanged an Afghan
national who had been 17 at the time of the crime (see N
o
. 40 in the table below).
90. Ayatollah Shahroodi had issued a similar circular letter in 2003.
28 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
© ISNA News Agency
Juveniles Ayaz
Marhuni (16/17) and
Mahmud Asgari
(15/16) are hanged
in public in Mashhad
in July 2005.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 29
Name Age at
execution
Age at time
of alleged
crime
Charge/reason
for execution
Date
Executed
Place Remarks
1 Ebrahim
Qorbanzadeh
17 Murder 24.10.1999 Rasht
2 Jasem Ebrahimi 17 Kidnapping, rape,
murder
14.1.2000 Gonaveh Public
hanging
3 Mehrdad Yusse 18 16 Murder 29.5.2001 Western Iran
4 1 minor
90
2003
5 Mohammad
Mohammadzadeh
22 17 Murder 25.1.2004 Ilam
6 Salman (surname
not available)
21 17 Murder 12.5.2004 Mashhad
7 Mojtaba Amiri 17 13.7.2004 Shiraz
8 Atefeh Rajabi
Sahaleh (f)
16
91
4
th
time offence
against chastity
15.8.2004 Neka Public hanging
at city centre
9 Iman Farrokhi 17 Murder 19.1.2005 Tehran
10 Ali Safarpour
Rajabi
20 16 or 17 Murder 13.7.2005 Poldokhtar
11 Ayaz Marhuni 16 or 17 Raping a 13 year
old boy
19.7.2005 Mashhad Public
hanging
12 Mahmud Asgari 15 or 16 “ “ “ “
13 Farshid Farighi 21 14-16 Murder of 5 men 1.8.2005 Bandar
Abbas
14 1 unnamed boy 17 Kidnapping &
rape
23.8.2005 Bandar
Abbas
Public
hanging
15 1 unnamed man 22 17 Rape 12.9.2005 Fars
province
16 Rostam Tajik 16 Murder 10.12.2005 Esfahan Afghan
national; hanged
in public
17 Majid Sagvand
92
17 Raping & killing
a 12-year-old boy;
jointly with a man
13.5.2006
Khorramabad
Public
hanging
18 Sattar (surname
not available
17 Murder Sept. 2006
19 Morteza M. 18 16 Murder 7.11.2006 Yazd Public
hanging
20 Naser Batmani 22 Under 18 Murder Dec. 2006 Sanandaj
prison
Kurdish
minority
21 Massoud Naqi
93
Biravand
2006 Lorestan
province
Table: Executions of minors, 1999 – MArch 2009
91. Hands Off Cain Report 2004.
92. The judge, who sentenced her to death and later personally put the noose around her neck, claimed that she was 22 years old.
The case received widespread coverage including in a BBC documentary in which her relatives produce both her birth and death
certificates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTv6ZDRyqe8
93. Some reports have spelled the name as Segound.
Note: The table has been compiled based on Amnesty International report “Iran: The last executioner of children”
AI Urgent Actions, Stop Child Executions campaign and other sources mentioned in the table.
While execution of juveniles in Iran has been drawing increasing protests from the international
community in particular in recent years, similar efforts are in progress within Iran. Most recently
in November 2008, Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), headed by the Nobel Peace
94. As of July 2008 there were 3 juvenile on death row in Saudi Arabia, 3 in Sudan and 1 in Yemen. Other than Iran, only Saudi
Arabia executed 1 juvenile in 2007. In 2008, Iran has been the only country to execute juveniles (see Juvenile offenders log in
annex).
95. Ibid.
30 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Name Age at
execution
Age at time
of alleged
crime
Charge/reason
for execution
Date
Executed
Place Remarks
22 Mohammadreza
Mussavi Shirazi
17 Murder 22.4.2007 Shiraz
23 Sa’id Qanbarzahi
(Baluch)
17 Family ties to
bombing suspects
27.5.2007 Zahedan
prison
Baluch
minority
24 Mohammad
Pezhman
Under 18 Rape May 2007 Bushehr
25
&
26
2 Afghans Under 18 Not available Sept/Oct
2007
Source:
Afghanistan
Independ-
ent HR
Commission
27 Hossein
Gharabaghloo
19 16 Murder 17.10.2007 Tehran
province
28 Amir Asgari 10.10.2007
29 Babak Rahimi 23 Possibly
under 18
Murder 17.10.2007
30 Mohammadreza
Tork
18 16 Murder 15.11.2007
31 Makwan
Moloudzadeh
21 13 Rape of 3 boys 4.12.2007 Kermanshah
prison
Kurdish
minority
32 Amir Houshang
Fazlollahzadeh
31.12.2007 Tonekabon
33 Mohammad
94
Faqiri
2007 Esfahan
province
34 Javad Shojaee 23 16 Murder 26.2.2008 Esfahan
prison
35 Mohammad
Hassanzadeh
16 or 17 Murder 10.6.2008 Sanandaj
prison
Kurdish
minority
36 Hassan Mozafari Under 18 Rape 22.7.2008 Bushehr
37 Rahman Shahidi “ “ “ “
38 Seyed Reza
Hejazi
15 Murder 19.8.2008 Esfahan
prison
39 Behnam Zare’ 15 Murder 26.8.2008 Shiraz
40 Gholamreza H. 19 17 Murder 29.10.2008 Esfahan
prison
Afghan
national
41 Ahmad Zare’i 23 17 Murder 25.12.2008 Sanandaj
prison
42 Molla
Gol-Hassan
21 17 Murder 21.01.2009 Evin prison Afghan
national
© Stopchildexecutions.com
© Stopchildexecutions.com
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 31
1. Saeed Jazee,
facing execution
for an unintentional
murder he commit-
ted at the age of 17,
was pardoned by
the victim’s family
in July 2008, after
his appeal had been
rejected and Head
of the Judiciary
had authorised his
execution.
2. Behnam Zar’e
was executed in
August 2008 at
the age of 18 for
an offence he had
allegedly committed
at the age of 15.
Laureate Shirin Ebadi, launched a campaign to abolish execution of juvenile offenders. Meanwhile,
information collected in previous years shows that execution of juvenile offenders is a long-standing
practice in Iran. More than 240 executions of juveniles were recorded in the course of 20 years
from 1979 to 1999 and the true gure may be higher still. About 200 of those, including many
girls, were executed during the turbulent years of 1981-83, in particular in 1981. Most of them
were school students aged from 13 to 17, who faced death by ring squads for their involvement
in opposition activities.
Iran ranks as the world’s top child executioner. Most other countries have stopped the practice
as a result of international and domestic pressure
96
. Since 1999 through March 2009, at least
42 executions of juvenile offenders have been recorded in Iran, 12 of them in 2007 and eight
in 2008, though the true gures are likely to be higher.
As recently as July 2008, twenty-four international and regional human rights organizations
published a joint statement calling on Iranian authorities to stop imposing the death penalty for
crimes committed by juvenile offenders. According to the statement, “[a]lmost 140 juvenile offend-
ers are known to be on death row in Iran, but the true gure could be even higher – for example,
Mohammad Hassanzadeh’s case was not known to campaigners prior to his execution
97
.”
A spreadsheet entitled “Juvenile offenders log, last updated July 7, 2008”, compiling information
collected by Amnesty International, the human rights activist Emadeddin Baqi, Iran Human
Rights and Stop Child Executions, disclosed that there were at least 138
98
(ve girls and 133
boys) Iranian nationals on death row who had been charged with crimes allegedly committed
when they were under the age of 18. According to the same document, there were at least
16 Afghan juveniles on death row in Iranian prisons (see “Juvenile offenders log” in annex).
96. As of July 2008 there were 3 juvenile on death row in Saudi Arabia, 3 in Sudan and 1 in Yemen. Other than Iran, only Saudi
Arabia executed 1 juvenile in 2007. In 2008, Iran has been the only country to execute juveniles (see Juvenile offenders log in
annex).
97. See http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5701.
98. A comparison of the said document with the cases recorded in the table above shows that some of them had been executed
before the compilation of the said document; some others have been executed afterwards.
21
32 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Religious minorities
The religion of the overwhelming majority of the population in Iran is Shia Islam, itself a
minority within the Islamic world. It is believed that between 80-90 per cent of Iranians are
Shiites. Of the rest, about 7-9 per cent are said to be Sunnis, the branch of Islam that is in
majority throughout the world. Ofcially, the rest of the population is composed of followers
of different branches of Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Next to Sunnis, however,
followers of Baha’ism are believed to constitute the largest religious minority
99
.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has declared Islam to be the ofcial religion
of the country and has recognised only three other religions, i.e. Judaism, Zoroastrianism and
Christianity. Hence the Constitution has stipulated that followers of various sects of the Sunni
branch of Islam as well as the other three recognised religions are free to practice their faith
(Articles 12 and 13). Consequently, the Constitution has pointedly and deliberately failed to
recognise other religious minorities in stark contrast to Article 18 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a State party.
Baha’is
The Baha’is are believed to number around 300,000 in Iran. Besides being deprived of many
of their civil rights, followers of Bahai’sm have suffered the highest number of executions in
comparison with any other religion in Iran. A written statement of the Baha’i International
Community to the UN Economic and Social Council dated 3 February 2003 stated that since
1979 more than 200 Baha’is had been executed or otherwise killed and 15 had disappeared,
who were also presumably dead
100
.
The Baha’i faith is regarded as the most dangerous form of apostasy
101
by IRI authorities, one
reason being that it originated in Iran in the nineteenth century
102
. More importantly, however,
is its contention that its founder was a messenger of God. Islam recognises that there have
been divine religions before it such as Judaism and Christianity, but it holds Prophet Moham-
mad as the ultimate prophet of God and Islam as the ultimate divine religion. Others, such
as Baha’ism, are man-made religions and thus tantamount to apostasy. As noted previously,
both Ayatollah Khomeini’s book, Tahrir ul-Vassileh, and the Constitution lay the ground for
the persecution of the Bahai’s as apostates.
Consequently, in the past 30 years, Baha’is have been subjected to one of the most extensive
religious persecutions in Iran in recent history. They have been consistently accused of apostasy,
espionage for Israel and collaboration with Zionism, presumably because the Baha’i world
headquarters are in Israel, where their founder is also buried.
99. It is to be noted that according to World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, Sunnis constitute 10% of the population
in Iran, Jews 0.04% (25,000), Christians 200,000-250,000, Zoroastrians 0.02% (10,000), Baha’is 0.5% (300,000) (see: http://
www.minorityrights.org/5092/iran/iran-overview.html). Other sources have mentioned the number of Zoroastrians up to 32,000,
Jews over 30,000, Christians more than 300,000 and Sunnis 9% (Country profile: Iran, May 2008 – Library of Congress).
100. A blog allocated to “martyrs of Baha’is in Iran since 1979” listed 215 names (see: http://bahaimartyrs.blogspot.
com/2008/07/1357.html)
101. See Apostasy under the Domestic legal framework section.
102. Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri (known as Baha’ullah to Bahai’s) was forced to leave Iran for Iraq, then under the Ottoman rule, in 1853
A.D. The Ottoman government banished him to Istanbul in 1863 and then to Acre in Palestine where he died in 1892 (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h).
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 33
At least two cases of execution of Baha’i juveniles have been documented. In June 1983, 10
Baha’i women were executed in Shiraz after they refused to deny their faith. Their charge
was teaching Baha’i tenets to children. Muna Mahmudnejad, one of the 10, was 16 at the
time of arrest and 17 when she was hanged in Adelabad prison of Shiraz. The second case
concerns Payman Subhani, a 15-year-old boy, who was mobbed, beaten and stoned to death
on the street in 1986.
Christians
Recognition of Christianity in the Constitution has not prevented persecution of Christians.
Among the Christians, “non-ethnic” Christians
103
have faced the greatest pressure most prob-
ably because, unlike the “ethnic” Christians, they have been involved in missionary activities.
Furthermore, former Moslems who have converted from Islam account for the highest number
of Christian victims of extrajudicial executions. They were considered to be guilty of apostasy.
As far as the scope of this report is concerned, there have been several cases of extrajudicial
executions of Christians as well as at least one judicial execution.
The only well known documented case of judicial execution of a Christian is Hossein Sood-
mand, pastor of Assemblies of God in Mashhad in eastern Iran. He was sentenced to death
for apostasy and executed in December 1990. A blog documenting “martyrs of Christianity
in Iran” alleged that “even his blind wife and young children were not granted mercy
104
. ”
However, it did not provide more details about the faith of the family. The same blog has
reported a number of extrajudicial executions of Christians, including several priests who
had converted from Islam.
Four Christians were arrested in the northern city of Chalus on 5 May 2004 and sentenced to
death, but they were later released in response to international protests.
Since late 2007, a large number of Christians have been detained – some of them later
released – including 14 in Tehran in December 2007, 10 in Tehran and 16 in Esfahan in May
2008. Among them, Arash Basirat and Mahmood Matin-Azad were charged with apostasy in
Shiraz, but were eventually acquitted and released after spending ve months in prison. Ramtin
Soodmand, son of Hossein Soodmand (see above), was also detained in late August 2008. At
the time it was widely feared that he would face the charge of apostasy, a charge that could
entail the death penalty. He was released on bail on 22 October 2008.
Non-Shiite Moslems
In the case of Sunni Moslems, it is at times extremely difcult to separate the religious minori-
ties from ethnic minorities, because the overwhelming majority of Sunni Moslems belong to
ethnic groups. Nevertheless, efforts have been made here to distinguish between cases directly
related to religious discrimination and those related to political repression.
Sunni Moslems are ofcially given a higher status than other religious minorities. Article 12
of the Constitution declares the Shia of 12 Imams as the ofcial religion, but accords ‘full
103. Ethnic Christians in Iran are Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans. They are mostly followers of the Orthodox Church, but some
are also Catholics. Non-ethnic Christians are mostly followers of Protestant and evangelical churches and many are converts
from Islam.
104. http://www.jesusmygod4.blogspot.com/
respect to other branches of Islam’. It then stipulates that they are totally free to practise their
religious rites and rituals and even recognises the primacy of their canon in courts in regard
to inheritance and will, marriage, divorce and provides for the local regulations to be in line
with their religion within the frameworks of law, in regions where they constitute the majority
of the population.
This has not prevented the authorities from repressing the Sunnis even in areas where they are
a majority, e.g. in Kurdish regions that include the Kurdistan, Kermanshah and Ilam provinces
and some parts of the Western Azerbaijan province, Baluchistan, Turkmen Sahra in the northeast
and the Arab population of Bushehr and Hormuzgan provinces
105
.
Like the Christians, most Sunni execution victims lost their lives in extrajudicial executions
106
.
On 10 April 2008, however, two Sunni clerics, Molavi Abdolghodus Mollazahi and Molavi
Mohammad Yusof Sohrabi, were hanged in Zahedan. They had been arrested following an
attack by the security forces on the city’s Sunni seminary in December 2007. A statement
of the local Justice Department carried by the semi-ofcial news agency, ISNA, referred to
them as “disrupters of social security who intended to sow discord between the Shiites and the
Sunnis
107
.” On 4 March 2009, two more Baluchi Sunni clerics, Molavi Khalilollah Zare’i and
Molavi Hafez Salaheddin Seyyedi were hanged in Zahedan prison. The Justice Department
of Zahedan announced that they had been charged with “moharebeh and corruption on earth
through menbership of terrorist groups”. (Daily Jomhuri Eslami 5 March 2009)
105. A part of the population in the Khuzestan province is also Arab, but they are mostly Shiite Moslems.
106. http://www.sunni-news.com/?p=775
107. http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/04/post_6887.php
34 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Ethnic minorities
There are a number of ethnic groups in Iran. Speakers of Persian and its various dialects are
the largest ethnic group, forming about 50 per cent of the population by some accounts. Next
to them, the most populous ethnic group is the Azerbaijani Turks (over 25% of the population),
Kurds (7-10%), Arabs (2%), Baluchis (2%) and the Turkmens (more than 1%)
108
.
The Constitution stipulates that Persian, or Farsi as it is called in Iran, is the ofcial language.
It also allows the use of ethnic and local languages in the media and the teaching of their
literature in schools alongside the Persian language (Article 15). The reality, however, is that
various ethnic groups have consistently complained of the violations of their rights. Most
Kurds, Baluchis, and Turkmens are followers of one or another branch of Sunni Islam, and
consequently also constitute a religious minority. The Arabs living in southwestern Khuzestan
are mostly Shiites, while those in the southern provinces of Bushehr and Hormuzgan are
mostly Sunnis. The Azerbaijani Turkic speakers are also predominantly Shiites. There have
been movements within all the ethnic minorities, demanding respect for their rights.
Kurds
The nationalist movement has been strong in the Kurd-
ish provinces of Iran for many years. Some Kurdish
groups have been ghting the central government in
Iran since 1979 and the demand for regional autonomy
is strong; they have thus suffered the highest number
of casualties in comparison with other ethnic groups.
The Amnesty International report on the Kurdish
minority says that following the conicts in 1979,
“Thousands of Kurds were sentenced to death after
summary trials.” The then religious judge, Ayatollah
Khalkhali conducted group trials lasting a mere few
minutes each and issued death sentences that were
carried out immediately, most of them by ring squads. When criticised for his summary trials
that could result in the death of innocent people, Ayatollah Khalkhali, who died in Qom in
November 2004, was famously quoted as having said: “If they were guilty, they deserved the
punishment. If they died innocently, they would go to Heaven”
109
.
While, a number of Kurdish opposition leaders lost their lives in the course of extrajudicial
executions abroad
110
, cultural activists and journalists are also subjected to harsh repression.
Many have been condemned to prison sentences, and some of them have been condemned
to death.
• Adnan Hassanpoor, a journalist and Kurdish cultural activist, was arrested in January 2007.
His friend and cousin, Abdolwahed (Hiwa) Butimar, an environmentalist, was arrested in
108. The Iranian authorities have consistently and deliberately avoided providing exact details of ethnic population figures. A report by
Amnesty International, Iran: Human rights abuses against the Kurdish minority (published 2008) said there were an estimated
12 million Kurds (15-17% of total population) living in Iran (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/088/2008/en/
f45865e9-5e3e-11dd-a592-c739f9b70de8/mde130882008eng.html).
109. Reported in Enqelab-e Eslami newspaper, published by former President Banisadr (http://enghelabe-eslami.com/dar-in-
shomare/704_matn3.htm).
110. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykonos_restaurant_assassinations; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassemlou
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 35
© Jahangir Razmi
Executions
in Kurdistan, August
1979, Pulitzer Prize
winning picture by
Jahangir Razmi
December 2006. They were both sentenced to death in June 2007 on charge of ghting God
(moharebeh) after spending several months incommunicado. Since then, their death sentences
have been upheld twice. However, the death sentence on Hassanpoor was repealed in late
September 2008. The death sentence on Butimar remains in place
111
.
• Farzad Kamangar, a Kurdish teacher and cultural activist, arrested in June 2006, was subjected
to torture for two years and then sentenced to death in February 2008.
• A list of 68 Kurdish political prisoners detained in various prisons, published in September
2008 by Kurdish groups, that did not include Butimar and Kamanger, indicated that at least
four of them were facing the death sentence, while information about sentences of some
others was not available
112
.
Arabs
The Arab minority, the majority of whose members live in the southwestern province of
Khuzestan, like other ethnic minorities, has been denied its cultural rights and has faced
repression both before and after the revolution. A few months after the 1979 revolution, there
were clashes in Khuzestan that were suppressed by the government and scores of Arabs were
sent to the gallows.
In April 2005, unrests in Khuzestan led to the death of many Arabs including some in alleged
extrajudicial executions. The turbulence occurred following the surfacing of a letter allegedly
written by Mr. Abtahi, an advisor to then President Khatami. The letter, dated 1999, the authen-
ticity of which Mr Abtahi strongly denied, proposed the reduction of the Arab population in
Khuzestan by transferring them to other parts of Iran. Subsequently, several bombs exploded in
Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan, as well as in Tehran, killing a number of people.
Seven men were shown on TV on 1 March 2006 and said to be convicted for involvement in
the bombings. Two of them were hanged the day after. At least 11 other men were also said
to be sentenced to death
113
. In 2006, 36 Arabs had been sentenced to death or lengthy prison
terms; ve were executed after unfair trials, two of them in public
114
. In 2007, at least eight
were executed and 17 others were facing the death sentence after unfair trials
115
.
Baluchis
The Baluchis who are said to number more than 1.4 million live mostly in the Sistan-Baluchistan
province in the southeast, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since the early 2000s, an armed
Baluchi group, People’s Resistance Movement of Iran, known as the Jondollah
116
has been
ghting the Iranian government stating its aim as achieving a more democratic system and full
rights of the Sunnis in Iran
117
. The response of the Iranian government has been very harsh.
111. See urgent appeal of the Observatory at http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5865
112. http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5863
113. Amnesty International’s 2006 report, “Defending minority rights: The Ahwazi Arabs”, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/
MDE13/056/2006
114. Amnesty International Report 2007.
115. Amnesty International Report 2008.
116. Army of Allah.
117. Amnesty International noted in its report (seehttp://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/104/2007/en) that the Jondollah
36 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
The authorities appointed the former prosecutor of the Special Court for Clergy and former
deputy prosecutor-general, Hojatoleslam Nekoonam, to head the Justice Department in Sistan
and Baluchistan in 2006. Since then the number of death sentences and executions have risen
drastically in the region. A large number of Baluchis have been arrested, tried and some of
them executed within a few days of the trials. Most have been accused of drug trafcking and
armed banditry, murder and kidnapping. It is not clear as to how many of them were involved
in the opposition against the government.
• In June 2006, six people were executed for ghting God and corruption on earth.
• Said Qanbarzahi was hanged on 27 May 2007. He had been sentenced to death in March
2007 when he was 17 years old, together with six other men. They were believed to have
been detained for their families’ ties to perpetrators of a bus bombing in February 2007 that
killed 14 revolutionary guards.
• Yaqub Mehrnahad, head of the of the Voice of Justice Young People’s Society, a registered
NGO, was arrested with some other members of the Society in Zahedan in May 2007. He
was also representative of the daily Mardomsalary in the province. He spent over a year
in detention during which he was sentenced to death and his sentence was upheld. He was
nally executed on 4 August 2008. Mehrnahad had been accused of cooperation with the
Jondollah. He had never taken up arms and was reportedly not given access to lawyers
during his detention.
• Amnesty International recorded at least ve executions of Baluchis in 2005; at least 32 and
possibly more than 50 in 2006; up to 50 from January-August 2007.
• In March 2007, Member of Parliament for Zahedan, Shahriyari said in an interview that 700
people had had their death sentences conrmed by the Supreme Court and were waiting to
be executed in the Sistan-Baluchistan province.
• A website keeping track of executions of Baluch people has recorded 176 judicial and extra-
judicial executions from December 2006 –through March 2009
118
.
has by its own admission “carried out gross abuses such as hostage taking, the killing of hostages and attacks against non-
military targets”.
118. http://www.balochetawaar.com/edaam/list4.htm; for another list see: http://www.radiobalochi.org/BH_Rights/
ListehBaziEdamiOkhoshteha_eng.html
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 37
Methods of execution
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, judges have the power to decide the method of execution,
which they usually choose in relation to the offence. The most common method of execution
is hanging. Other specic methods of execution include stoning to death, issued in cases
of adultery, beheading and throwing from a cliff, which are occasionally issued for rape or
sodomy. Some reported examples of those methods of execution are as follows: In 1987, a
judge gave three people a choice between three methods of execution;
they chose to jump over a cliff; in 1990, one man was thrown from a
precipice; in 1991, one man was thrown from a cliff; in 2001, one man
was beheaded
119
. In January 2008, two young men were sentenced to
death by throwing from a height for rape in Fars province
120
.
As regards treatment of prisoners before they are executed, it is not
possible to establish if there is a uniform practice nationwide, but in
many cases, prisoners on death row are known to be taken out of the
public ward and sent to solitary cells one or two days before the execu-
tion date. The family of a death-row convict is notied of the impending
execution in some cases, especially in cases of retributive (qesas
121
)
death sentence, so that the family of the condemned still has a chance
of pleading and negotiating over blood money with the family of the
murdered person till the last moment
122
. The latter must be present to see
the sentence carried out at their behest. In most other cases, especially
in the case of political prisoners, the families are notied afterwards
when they are asked to collect the personal effects of the prisoner
123
.
Prisoners due to be executed are handcuffed and occasionally foot-
shackled, in particular when they are to be hanged in public and have
to be taken off the prison premises for that purpose.
1. Hanging
Death-row prisoners were mostly hanged in public many years before
the 1979 revolution, among other places, at a square in southern Tehran,
which was called ‘Maydan-e E’dam’
124
, later renamed the Moham-
madieh Square. Many people still call it by its old name. In the years
leading to the revolution, executions took place mostly in prisons, but
different locations have been used since then.
119. Amnesty International annual reports.
120. http://www.qudsdaily.com/archive/1386/html/10/1386-10-12/page58.html
121. See Domestic legal framework section.
122. ”Directive on Implementation regulations for Qesas, Stoning, Killing, Crucifixion, Execution & Flogging” require the presence
of the following: the sentencing judge, governor or deputy governor of prison, commander or deputy commander of the local
police force, a forensic medicine specialist, a cleric or religious representative (not obligatory), court secretary, survivors of the
victim or their lawyer, lawyer of the condemned (not obligatory), and witnesses if required by law. For an English translation
of the Rules see Appendix 3 in: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/001/2008/en/ec69fe85-d981-11dc-a340-
29dd7d6e4103/This+document+is+not+available+as+HTML.html
123. This is the current practice. In the 1980s, families of prisoners were not usually told about the executions and were mostly not
even given their personal effects. Survivors of victims of the 1988 mass executions have never to this date been notified of the
burial places of their beloved (see Massacre of 1988 above).
124. Execution Square.
© Getty Images © FARS News Agency
38 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Top picture:
A man in his final
moments
During the rst years after the revolution, many prisoners
were executed by ring squads inside prisons or in the case
of Kurdish rebels outside the cities. Some were hanged from
cranes or from bridges or on the streets and in the main squares,
which remains a frequent practice. However, many prisoners
are hanged inside prisons nowadays. Death-row prisoners may
also be sentenced to ogging, in which case the ogging is
administered before they are executed.
2. Stoning
Under the Islamic Penal Code, it is an extremely difcult task to prove fornication/adultery. It may
be proved if an offender confesses four times before a judge or by testimony of “four just men or
three just men and two just women”
125
who should have witnessed the exact action of penetration
in sexual intercourse between a man and a
woman. Less than four confessions by the
defendant will lead to another punishment,
possibly ogging. Furthermore, a judge
may request that the Supreme Leader
pardon a fornicator who confesses to
fornication and then repents his/her action.
There are other qualifying conditions, the
absence of which should theoretically
lead to annulment of testimonies and
the dropping of the charge of fornica-
tion or adultery
126
. Judges are, however,
empowered to rule on the basis of their
own “knowledge” in various cases. Hence,
a good number of stoning as well as other sentences are issued on the basis of the “knowledge of
the judge”. This is illegal even according to the letter of the Islamic Penal Code
127
.
In an interview
128
, Secretary of the Iranian Human Rights HQ, Mohammad Javad Larijani
defended the stoning sentence, arguing it was a lesser punishment than execution, because the
condemned person had the possibility of escaping. In practice, however, the conditions set out
for stoning are very cruel
129
as the following accounts show.
125. Under the law, in most cases, testimony of two women equals that of one man.
126. Articles 68-81 of the IPC. For those and other articles of the IPC dealing with fornication, adultery and stoning as well as the
Directive on Implementation Regulations for [related] Sentences including stoning, see the sources in footnotes 27 and 121 or
Appendices 2 and 3 in: Amnesty International’s report in January 2008, Iran: End executions by stoning: http://www.amnesty.
org/en/library/asset/MDE13/001/2008/en/ec69fe85-d981-11dc-a340-29dd7d6e4103/This+document+is+not+available+a
s+HTML.html
127. It is notable that the IPC has stipulated “knowledge of the judge” specifically as one of the means to prove theft or murder,
but not in the case of fornication/adultery. However, Ayatollah Khomeini has granted judges the power to use their knowledge
in fornication- and adultery-related cases (Tahrir ul-Vassileh, Vol 4, P 197). The book was invoked to sentence two sisters to
stoning in 2007(see the case of Kabiriniyyat sisters below).
128. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2007/09/070930_ka-stoning-larijani.shtml
129. For details see Domestic legal framework. There is a theoretical possibility for the stoning victim to escape under Article 103:
“If the condemned… escapes the pit, s/he shall be returned for the stoning to be administered if adultery has been proved by
testimony; however, s/he shall not be returned if adultery has been proved by confession.” Nevertheless, in practice, even if
other important factors such as the extreme weakness resulting from injuries were to be ignored, the burial conditions alone
make it almost impossible for the victims, especially for women who are buried up to their breasts, to escape. Among all the
documented cases, two men were reported to escape from the stoning pit. The exact details and conditions are not known (see
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 39
A scene of group
executions in 2008 on
Iranian TV screen
A cartoon of stoning
in Iran in the Qajar
era bout 200 years
ago; from a book by
Charles James Wills
An eye-witness account published by Amnesty International in 1987 related the following
experience:
“The lorry deposited a large number of stones and pebbles beside the waste ground, and
then two women were led to the spot wearing white and with sacks over their heads… [they]
were enveloped in a shower of stones and transformed into two red sacks… The wounded
women fell to the ground and Revolutionary Guards smashed their heads in with a shovel
to make sure they were dead
130
.”
In the more recent case of Ja’afar Kiani (see below), Shadi Sadr, a co-founder of the Stop
Stoning Forever Campaign and lawyer of Ja’afar Kiani and his partner Mokarrameh Ebrahimi,
provided the following shocking account:
“The stones were so large that there are even aws in the provisions for implementation of the
sentence… Unofcial reports … indicate that Ja’afar was still alive after stoning but his ear
and nose had been smashed and slashed. When a forensic medicine specialist conrmed that he
was still alive, Mr… [sic] smashed his head with a large concrete block and killed him
131
.”
Recent cases of stoning
Stoning sentences in Iran have received widespread coverage especially in recent years. Although
the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroodi issued a moratorium on execution by stoning
in December 2002, at least seven stoning sentences have been enforced since. In May 2006,
a man and a woman, Abbas Hajizadeh and Mahboobeh Mohammadi, were stoned to death in
the Behesht-e Reza cemetery in Mashhad, according to information initially unveiled by the
investigative journalist, Asieh Amini. The case was not reported in the Iranian media.
In November 2006, the then spokesperson of the judiciary denied that stoning was practised in
Iran. Though in July 2007, another stoning took place that received widespread publicity: Ja’afar
Kiani was stoned to death in a village near the town of Takestan, for committing adultery with
Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who was also sentenced to stoning. The couple, who had two children,
had been in prison for 11 years. The stoning took place despite the 2002 moratorium as well
as a specic stay of execution of Kiani’s stoning ordered by the head of the judiciary.
Three months later, Secretary of Human Rights Head Quarters Mohammad Javad Larijani
blamed the judge’s mistake in decision making for implementation of the sentence on Ja’afar
Kiani. Nevertheless, he defended the appropriateness of the stoning sentence and denied that
it was a kind of torture or violation of human rights
132
.
On 5 August 2008, the spokesperson of the Iranian judiciary announced that stoning sentences
would no longer be implemented. He also said that the Supreme Leader had pardoned two
people sentenced to stoning and reported that one other stoning sentence had been commuted
to 10 years imprisonment and another to ogging. He noted the other stoning sentences were
under review by the Amnesty and Pardon Commission of the Judiciary
133
.
the cases in November 1998 and December 2008 below in the Table: Stoning sentences and executions, 1980-2009 (March).
130. Op. cit.
131. http://www.aftab.ir/news/2007/aug/05/c1c1186332824_politics_iran_takestan.php
132. Op. cit.
133. There is a central Commission at the Capital and local commissions in provinces. The central Commission consists of five
judges who are appointed by head of the judiciary, its task being to examine applications for amnesty from convicts or
judicial officials in favour of convicts and to make recommendations to the Supreme Leader accordingly. It has the power
40 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Only a day before the spokesperson of the judiciary announced the suspension of stoning
sentences, on 4 August 2008, the Supreme Court upheld a stoning sentence for Afsaneh R.
in Shiraz
134
.
Other stoning sentences have continued to be issued and implemented in 2008 and early 2009
(see the table). As it was noted earlier in the case of the moratorium on public hangings, some
judges continue to ignore the moratoria issued by Ayatollah Shahroodi, head of the judiciary,
because his directives do not have the force of law. The Constitution of the IRI has specied the
powers of the head of judiciary and he may not prevent the implementation of a sentence.
According to new reports, stoning sentences were carried out in Mashhad on 25 December 2008.
Two men by the names of Mahmood M. Gh (a citizen of Afghanistan; charge unknown), Manouchehr
Kh (charges: rape and incest) and a third man (charge: unknown) were stoned in the Behesht-e
Reza Cemetery of Mashhad. The rst man managed to escape the stoning pit
135
. Another report
indicated that a 30-year-old man had been stoned to death in Rasht prison on 5 March 2009
136
.
Pending stoning sentences
Following the stoning in Mashhad in May 2006, human rights lawyers and journalists, some of
whom later set up the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign
137
, documented 11 cases of people facing
the stoning sentence
138
. They included nine woman namely Iran Eskandari, Khayrieh Valania,
Fatemeh, Parisa Akbari, Kobra Najjar, Shamameh (known as Malek) Qorbani, Ashraf Kalhor,
Hajieh Esmaiylvand, Soghra Molaei, and two men named Abdollah Farivar-Moghaddam and
Najaf Akbari. More cases were discovered as a result of further research including an unnamed
Afghan man in Mashhad, Ja’afar Kiani and his partner Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, as well as a
couple of women named Layla Qomi and Hajar
139
. Another report on the Maydaan website of
the Campaign mentioned two more names: A’zam Khanjari and Zahra Rezaei
140
.
to recommend the commuting of sentences or amnesty for convicts. Article 22 of the commission’s rules of procedure
provides for 13 specific occasions each year, when the eligible persons may be pardoned and released. Some of them
are religious occasions, e.g. birthday of Prophet Mohammad and birthdays of some Shia imams. Some others are national
occasions, e.g. the Iranian New Year (Noruz) at the start of the spring. One occasion (birthday of the prophet’s daughter) is
specifically designated for granting amnesty to female convicts. However, under the same Article, convicts may be pardoned
on “other occasions that the Supreme Leader approves of.” Under Article 23, policies governing amnesty and pardon include:
“consideration of the impact of punishment on the convict and the latter’s regret; consideration of social, political and regional
necessities; consideration of the right of people and compensation for private complainants.” These provisions have regularly
been used to exert pressure on certain convicts. For example, political prisoners are expected to disavow their beliefs in order
to qualify for amnesty. The provisions excluding certain categories of convicts from eligibility for amnesty are perhaps just
as bad. According to Article 25, the following categories do not qualify for amnesty: professional drug traffickers; convicts
facing punishment according to rights of people such as the qesas cases; armed robbery; rape; espionage, moharebeh, arms
smuggling; embezzlement, bribery and kidnapping; convicts sentenced to death and stoning whose crime has been proved by
testimony of witnesses.
134. http://hright.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/hright/more/17083/ and
http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/12/post_10840.php
135. http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/12/post_10840.php. His fate is unclear. Under the IPC, if his sentence was issued
on the basis of his own confession, the sentence would be repealed (Article 103).
136. http://www.autnews.us/archives/1387,12,00019024
137. http://www.meydaan.org/english/petition.aspx?pid=9&cid=46
138. http://www.meydaan.com/showArticle.aspx?arid=28
139. For details of most of those cases see Amnesty International’s report January 2008, Iran: End executions by stoning: http://
www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/001/2008/en/ec69fe85-d981-11dc-a340-29dd7d6e4103/This+document+is+not
+available+as+HTML.html
140. http://www.meydaan.com/showArticle.aspx?arid=493
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 41
Other stoning sentences that were issued later included
141
:
• A 49-year-old man who said he had married a girl on a temporary basis (Deutsche Welle
radio station. No date specied)
142
.
• Two sisters, Zohreh and Azar Kabiriniyyat, each the mother of two children
143
. They were
sentenced to stoning in August 2007 on the basis of Ayatollah Khomeini’s book, Tahrir
ul-Vassileh
144
. In October 2008, the head of the judiciary ordered a re-examination of their
cases.
• A woman in Mashhad was sentenced to stoning after she complained to court against a man
who had raped her. The man was set free after claiming that the woman had consented to sex,
and receiving a punishment of 100 lashes (Quds newspaper, 27 September 2007).
• A man in Mashhad was sentenced to stoning after he confessed to adultery (Quds newspaper,
14 February 2008).
Of all the documented stoning sentences, seven had been reprieved as of summer 2008 as a
result of efforts by human rights defenders and international pressure. These were: Hajieh
Esmaiylvand, A’zam Khanjari, Zahra Rezaei, Parisa Akbari and her husband Najaf Akbari,
Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and Soghra Molaei.
Alternative methods of execution
Human rights defenders have been concerned that the judiciary continues to employ methods
other than stoning as punishment for defendants. If this concern turns out to be justied, that
would still mean the imposition of the death sentence, albeit by arguably less painful methods
of execution, for consensual sex between adults, in violation of international human rights
standards (see International legal framework).
A letter written in June 2007 by ve lawyers representing seven women facing the stoning
sentence pointed out that a 32-year-old mother of two named Massumeh, who had previously
been sentenced to stoning, had reportedly, as substitute, been hanged in November 2006
145
.
Another report on the Maydaan website on 31 December 2006 indicated that a man named
Rassul was due to be hanged in Evin prison instead of being stoned
146
. Finally, Abdollah
Farivar-Moghaddam, who had previously been sentenced to stoning, was executed in the
northern city of Sari on 19 February 2009.
Bill for amendment of IPC does not abolish stoning
The new draft Bill for amendment of the Islamic Penal Code does not appear to promise
much fundamental change to the applicable IPC. If anything, the punishments will be more
141. See: http://www.meydaan.com/showArticle.aspx?arid=493
142. The details resemble those of Abdollah Farivar Moqaddam, whose case has been documented.
143. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/06/iran17989.htm
144. Op. cit.
145. http://www.meydaan.com/wwShow.aspx?wwid=389
146. http://www.meydaan.com/wwShow.aspx?wwid=168
42 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
subtly applied. The bill still deems fornication to be a crime the punishment for which may
not be forgiven by private complainants, because it ‘has a public aspect and is a right of the
Allah’ (Article 121-3, paragraph 1). Article 213-2 refers to stoning twice and Article 313-1
once. Article 213-2 stipulates that “stoning will be cancelled if the confessor withdraws his/
her confession … except if the judge has clear or cognitive knowledge with regard to it.” This
provision evidently gives much more power to the judges than the applicable IPC that has not
even mentioned judge’s knowledge.
Article 221-5 of the bill prescribes killing
147
for incest, adultery with stepmother, non-Moslem
men who commit adultery with Moslem women, and rape and it specically and expressly
prescribes stoning for adultery (paragraph e). The only provision that has been alleged to
indicate the revocation of the stoning punishment is contained in Note 4 of the same Article:
“In the event that the implementation of stoning could lead to corruption and disgrace to the
system, at the proposal of the prosecutor in charge of implementation of the sentence and
upon ratication of the head of the judiciary, stoning shall be substituted with killing, if the
cause for punishment has been proved by shari’a-sanctioned testimony
148
. Otherwise it shall
be substituted with one hundred lashes.” This Article makes it crystal clear that stoning will
be avoided only if it causes disgrace to the Islamic Republic system and even then it would be
replaced with another method of execution. Hence, fornicators and adulterers may be hanged
or otherwise executed rather than stoned.
Articles 221-16 and 221-17 describe how stoning should be imposed, and include the same
provisions for burial and the size of stones as in the current Islamic Penal Code.
Discrimination against women
Though men are occasionally sentenced to stoning, women are the main victims of the ston-
ing sentence. A closer examination of the cases of women sentenced to stoning (see Table
below) shows that some of them were accused of both adultery and involvement in the killing
of their husband. Domestic violence, poverty, addiction, and illiteracy are some of the recur-
rent aspects in their lives. At least three of those women had been forced by their husbands
to work as prostitutes. Some come from ethnic backgrounds. One comes from the Bakhtiari
tribe, two are Turkic speakers from Iranian Azerbaijan and two are from the Kurdish areas.
Hence, they were likely not to understand the signicance or even the meaning of the charges
levelled against them. For example, Hajiyeh Esmaiylvand, a Turkic speaker, who was acquitted
and released after seven years in prison, did not even know the meaning of the word zena
149
when she was charged with “zena-ye mohseneh
150
.” Shamameh Qorbani, a Kurdish woman,
was stabbed by her husband and brothers who also killed the man they found in the house.
She reportedly confessed to adultery in the belief that it would save her husband and brothers
from prosecution for murder. Later she withdrew her confession saying the man had raped
her. Before dismissing her lawyers under pressure from her family, she told them that if they
managed to save her, she would have to kill herself, because the male members of the family
would not let her live.
147. See footnote 34.
148. bayyeneh shari’i.
149. fornication.
150. adultery.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 43
Table: Stoning sentences & executions, 1980 – 2009 (March)
Year Sentenced to stoning
(AI)
Executed by stoning Other information
AI Other sources
1985 2
1986 “Several recorded” 6 m; 2 f
1987 1 person
1989 43 for adultery
& prostitution
Including 12 f &
3 m in Bushehr’s
football stadium
1990 6 people
1991 1 (f)
1995 1 m for adultery
& sodomy
In the western city of
Hamedan
1996 Mokarrameh Ebrahimi
& Ja’afar Kiani
1997 Oct : 7 including
5 women
3 m; 3 f;
Khazarabad
151
August: 1 woman
(Zoleykha Kadkhoda)
was arrested & sent
to stoning within 24
hours
She was stoned and doctors
conrmed her death, but she
revived in the morgue; her
fate is unknown
1998 Nov.: A man
(Khosrow Ebra-
himi) sentenced
for adultery
The victim managed to
escape the pit after being
buried to the waist and was
acquitted; in the northern
city of Lahijan
1999 1 m
152
January - Babol
2000 Hajieh Esmaiylvand
153
2001 At least 2
people
154
21 May – Evin Prison
11 July – Evin prison
2002 Khayrieh Valania
(confessed 4 times);
Ashraf Kalhor
2 people A couple
155
2003 4 men in Mashhad;
Gilan Mohammadi
and Gholamali
Eskandari
156
Both in Esfahan prison
151. The stoning most probably took place at a northern sea resort by that name near Sari, the provincial capital of Mazandaran.
There are however three villages by that English transliteration as in the AI report, albeit with a different Persian spelling, in
Khorassan, Yazd and Eastern Azerbaijan provinces.
152. Hands off Cain 2000 report.
153. AI reported her sentencing in the year 2004.
154. According to a BBC report, two women were stoned to death in May and July (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_
east/1435760.stm).
44 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Year Sentenced to stoning
(AI)
Executed by stoning Other information
AI Other sources
2004 Abdollah Farivar-
Moqaddam
157
;
Parisa Akbari; Najaf
Akbari; Layla Qomi
2005 Iran Eskandari; Upheld in 2006; confessed
once
Soghra Molaei;
Fatemeh
2006 Shamameh (Malek)
Qorbani; An unnamed
Afghan man
Abbas Hajjiza-
deh & Mahbubeh
Mohammadi in
Mashhad
2007 Hajar; Zohreh & Azar
Kabiriniyyat; another
woman in Mashhad
1 man: Ja’afar
Kiani - Takestan
2008 1 man (Mashhad);
Afsaneh R. (f;
Shiraz)
158
3 men:
Mahmoud M.
Gh. (Afghan);
Manouchehr
Kh. (rape &
incest) and
one other
159
Behesht-e Reza Cemetery
(Mashhad); Mahmoud M.
Gh managed to escape from
the stoning pit; his fate is
unclear.
2009
(March)
Vali Azad (m)
160
Rasht prison (Gilan)
Date
un-
known
Kobra Najjar, Zahra
Rezaei and A’zam
Khanjari
Sources: Amnesty International reports 1979-2008 and its 2008 report Iran: End execution by stoning; Stop Stoning Forever
Campaign; Iranian newspapers; Hands Off Cain
Note: The figures are the minimum numbers of executions by stoning as reported by the media in any given year. It is not clear
whether there have been stoning sentences or execution by stoning in other years that have not been reported here.
155. Hands off Cain 2003 report.
156. The AI statement of 16 January 2009 indicated that Mohammadi and Eskandari may have been sentenced in 2005 or 2006;
the sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008.
157. Farivar-Moghaddam was executed on 19 February 2009 after his stoning sentence was substituted with hanging
(http://www.meydaan.com/Showarticle.aspx?arid=762).
158. Interview with Mr. Ra’eesi, head of Human Rights Committee of the Fars Province Bar Association in
http://www.campaignforequality.info/spip.php?article3288.
159. http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/12/post_10840.php.
160. Source: Amir Kabir University Student Newsletter (http://www.autnews.us/archives/1387,12,00019024).
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 45
Conclusion and Recommendations
The laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran punish by death a very large number of offences,
including offences that are not considered as “most serious” under international law – in
particular political, economic, drug-related and so-called sexual offences. Current draft legis-
lation on the parliament’s agenda would reduce the scope of capital punishment to a certain
extent, but extend it to apostasy and widen its scope in the case of vaguely worded offences,
e.g. “corruption on earth.”
Although Iran is a party to the ICCPR and the CRC, the provisions of those international
human rights instruments relevant to the death penalty are widely disregarded. The recom-
mendations addressed to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the treaty bodies in
charge of the examination of the respect for these conventions have been left unimplemented
for years, in particular with regard to gender-neutral age of majority, end to sentencing and
execution of juvenile offenders, restriction of the scope of the death penalty, and an end to
public executions.
Death sentences are pronounced after unfair trials: the Judiciary is not independent from the
Executive, there are numerous special courts, and attacks on and even imprisonment of lawyers
involved in the defense of sensitive cases are recurrent.
Execution of juvenile offenders occur regularly, a widespread practice being to keep a minor
convicted of a capital crime in prison until she or he grows older and later execute him or her.
Since 1999, human rights organisations have recorded at least 42 executions of juveniles in
Iran, 12 of them in 2007, eight in 2008 and one in early 2009. The true gures are possibly
higher. Despite several legislative proposals to ban execution of juvenile offenders, this practice
is not yet banned under domestic law.
Persons belonging to ethnic minorities in Iran (Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis) are often condemned
to death and subsequently executed for offences related to the security of the state. Peaceful
activists are sometimes unfairly condemned on such grounds, since the authorities do not make
a difference between peaceful advocacy for the rights of the said minorities, and armed attacks
by autonomists. Fair trial guarantees are violated and witnesses regularly report widespread
use of torture in those cases.
Last but not least, the methods of execution may themselves amount to an inhuman and degrad-
ing treatment: stoning remains the punishment for adultery, while people condemned to death
for other offences are hanged. Hanging regularly occurs in public, a practice that contravenes
international human rights standards.
Civil society in Iran is largely mobilised against death by stoning and capital punishment for
juvenile offenders. However, there are no publicly available statistics on the number of death
sentences pronounced and executions implemented, and this prevents any informed public
debate on these practices.
46 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Recommendations to the Iranian authorities:
1. On the death penalty in particular:
– Adopt an immediate moratorium on executions in light of the serious shortcomings of the
guarantees of due process and fair trial in criminal trials; this should be done through a law
adopted by Parliament aiming to abolish the death penalty.
– As a rst step, restrict the number of offences carrying the death sentence to the most serious
crimes only, and refrain from dening new crimes entailing capital punishment, in conformity
with international human rights standards; suppress the mandatory death sentence when it
currently exists, as required by international human rights law. These amendments should
be applied retrospectively to prisoners who were condemned to death on the basis of prior
legislation, in conformity with Para. 2 of the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing the Protection of
the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty.
– Put an immediate end to the sentencing and execution of minors, and commute all death
sentences pronounced against persons who were below 18 at the time of the offence. A law
prohibiting the death penalty for juvenile offenders should be adopted in order to give binding
force to Ayatollah Shahroodi’s circulars of 2003 and of 16 October 2008 inviting the courts
to stop condemning juvenile offenders to death.
– Adopt a law prohibiting death by stoning in order to give binding force to head of judiciary’s
directive of December 2002. Abolish corporal punishments more generally, such as whip-
ping, crucixion and amputation, as required under Article 7 of the ICCPR, and as already
recommended by the UN HRC in 1993 and the CRC in 2005.
– Put an immediate end to public executions, and ensure that the circular reportedly issued by
the Head of the Judiciary banning public executions is being effectively implemented.
– Appoint a parliamentary committee to elaborate a report on the application and conditions
of implementation of death penalty in the country.
– Abolish the negotiable character of very serious offences such as murder, where family of
the victim can negotiate the penalty.
– Guarantee the right of anyone sentenced to death to seek pardon, or commutation of sentence,
as required by the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing the Protection of the Rights of Those Facing
the Death Penalty.
– Guarantee transparency of data collection regarding death penalty in the country, and make
public statistics on the number of death sentences pronounced and executed every year,
differentiated by gender, age, charges etc, in order to allow for an informed public debate
on the issue.
– Become a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aiming at the abolition of
the death penalty.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 47
2. On the administration of justice
– Ensure full respect for the independence of the Judiciary and the principle of separation of
powers, as enshrined in Article 57 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Seek
guidance in the recommendations of the UN WGAD of 2003, following its visit to Iran.
Those recommendations include the abolition of the revolutionary tribunals as well as other
special courts
– Set up a systematic and reliable legal aid system, making sure that senior lawyers participate
in the system, increasing their emoluments in that framework and establishing a supervisory
mechanism involving the Bar Association to ensure that lawyers from the legal aid scheme
discharge their functions effectively; ensure access to legal representation from the time
of arrest and during the pre-trial stage. As noted by the UN WGAD in 2003, “the active
involvement of counsel must be provided for, whatever the nature of the case, starting with
the custody or, the very least, the investigation phase, throughout the trial and in the appeals
stage; Access to legal aid must be made more effective”.
– Stop harassment of lawyers involved in the defence of sensitive cases and ensure full respect for
the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. FIDH recalls that in 2003, the UN WGAD recom-
mended that “immunity of counsel in pleading cases must be reafrmed and expressly guaranteed
in a legislative instrument formulated in cooperation with representatives of the Bar”.
– Guarantee accessibility of members of civil society to prisons and ensure contacts with
condemned prisoners. A special task force of lawyers under the auspices of the Bar Associa-
tion should be set up to monitor the conditions of detention of condemned prisoners.
– Duly investigate all complaints of extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and ill-
treatment, bring the culprits to justice and take measures to prevent any recurrence of such
acts, recommended by the UN HRC as early as in 1993.
– Include a clear denition of torture in the Penal Code and ratify the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
– Establish effective and independent complaint mechanisms against the police in cases of
alleged ill-treatment or torture.
– Strengthen police investigations, in particular through material and forensic information
collection and ensure proper training in those elds.
– Submit periodic reports to the UN Human Rights Committee, as per the ICCPR ratied by
Iran.
– Accept the visit request of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions. The Special Rapporteur saught a visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2004
and 2005.
48 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
Recommendations to the international community
– The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions should seek a
visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to enquire both into the use of the death penalty
in violation of international human rights standards, and other violations of the right of life
such as deaths in custody.
– Raise the question of the administration of criminal justice in general, and the use of the
death penalty in particular, on the occasion of the Universal Periodic Review of Iran before
the UN Human Rights Council in 2010.
Recommendations to the European Union
– In accordance with the EU Guidelines on the death penalty, raise the issue of the death penalty
in the framework of its bilateral meetings with the Islamic Republic of Iran
– Provide technical assistance and share information, where requested by the Iranian
government
– Encourage moves towards abolition of death penalty and support efforts to develop profes-
sional and public human rights education and judicial and prosecutorial training
– Support civil society initiatives in favour of abolition in Iran
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 49
50 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
Girls (5)
1 Akram
Alimohammad
(Alias: Setayesh)
17
2 Delara Darabi 17 Rasht Branch 10, Rasht
Judiciary
Supreme Court
- Tehran
Delara Darabi, then aged 17, reportedly burgled the house of an elderly
female relative on 29 September 2003 together with a 19-year-old man
named Amir Hossein Sotoudeh. Amir Hossein allegedly killed the woman
during the burglary. Delara Darabi initially confessed to the murder, but
subsequently retracted her confession, claiming that Amir Hossein had
asked her to admit responsibility for the murder to protect him from
execution, believing that as she was under 18, she could not be sentenced
to death.
3 Nazbibi Ateshbejan 16 Branch 107,
Khoramabad
Criminal Court,
1/May/2006
Supreme Court,
12/Feb/2006
From Semnan, she was sentenced for supplying drugs when she was
16 years old by Branch 107 of Khorramabad General Court on
1 May 2006. The sentence was conrmed by the Supreme Court on
12 February 2006.
4 Soghra Najafpour 13 Gilan Soghra Najafpour is accused of killing the 8 year old child of an doctor
in the city of Rasht, where she lived with the family as a maid since the
age of 9. Soghra was 13 years old at the time and denied the charges.
She spent all of her adult life, 17 years, in prison and is now 30 years
old. Soghra was released from prison on bail in the beginning of October
2007, but she was called by the Judiciary to return to prison within
5 days, after the family of the victim demanded Soghra’s execution, her
family were notied that Soghra must report back to the prison authorities
within 5 days. Once Soghra realized that upon return to prison she would
be executed she ran away scared and has not been seen since.
5 Sara Islamshahr Tehran Criminal
Court
September, 2003
Boys (152):
1 Aadel 15 Esfahan Branch 17, Esfahan Esfahan criminal court branch 17 sentenced Adel, 15 to qesas for the
murder of Alireza, 17. (No date for court hearing, reported byEtemade
Meli on Wednesday 18/03/08) Adel killed Alireza on 15/10/07 in
Falavarjan, a town near Esfahan province.
2 Ali Mahin Torabi 16 Karaj Branch 33, Special
Public Court for
Children,
30/October/2003
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
8/June/2004
Ali Mahin Torabi, from Karaj, faces execution for the killing of a
schoolmate named Mazdak during a playground ght in Bani Hashemi
High School in February 2003. Ali Mahin Torabi was 16 years old at the
time. A Juvenile Court in Karaj sentenced Ali Mohin Torabi to qesas on
30 October 2003 and on 8 June 2004, Branch 27 of the Supreme Court
upheld the sentence. Ali Mahin Torabi is in Reja'i Shahr prison in Karaj
awaiting execution.
3 Abbas Karaj Branch 77, Tehran
children's court
Supreme Court, 30/
May/2006
4 Ali Moradzadeh
Zagheh
Qom
5 Abbass Hosseini 17 In July 2003 Abbas Hosseini was reportedly helping a man, a member
of the Revolutionary Guard, to move furniture in his house. He says the
man made sexual advances to him. Abbas Hosseini then managed to leave
the house by promising that he would return with his girlfriend. In a t of
rage he returned to the house in order to “teach the man a lesson”.
He lured the man outside, supposedly to meet the girlfriend, and stabbed
him once with a knife. The man died shortly afterwards as a result of his
injuries. He had been scheduled to be executed on 1 May 2005 then his
execution was stayed until 8 May 2005 and nally his case was referred
to the judiciary in Tehran for review.
At least 138 juvenile offenders believed to be on death row in Iran:
Compiled from information collected by Amnesty International,
Emadeddin Baghi, Iran Human Rights and Stop Child Executions
As of July 7, 2008 145 juvenile offenders are facing execution worldwide: 138 in Iran,
3 in Saudi Arabia, 3 in Sudan and 1 in Yemen.
At least 2 juveniles have been executed in Iran in 2008.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 51
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
6 Ahmad 17 Tehran Branch 71, Tehran
General Court
On 21 November 2007 Ahmad, 17, was sentenced to death by four judges
of Branch 71 of Tehran General for the murder of his cousin Saeed. One
judge believed Ahmad had acted in self-defence, however on verdict of
majority of judges Ahmad was sentenced to qesas
7 Ali
Nourmohammadi
16 Branch 24,
Kermanshah
Branch 6,
Kermanshah Appeal
Court
Ali Nourmohammadi was 16 when he killed one of his cousins in a
ght. He was sentenced to qesas by Branch 24 of General Court of
Kermanshah, which has no jurisdiction over juvenile cases. All the other
defendants in the case were over 18. Two others involved in the ght, Ali
Nourmohammadi’s uncle and another cousin, were sentenced to diyeh for
injuring Ali Nourmohammadi. The sentences were conrmed by Branch
6 of Kermanshah Appeal Court. Ali Nourmohammadi has been in prison
for nine years hoping that the issue can be resolved within the family.
8 Abdolkhaleq
Rakhshani
Golestan
Province
Branch 2, Golestan
Appeals Court,
16/March/2006
from Golestan, whose sentence to qesas was upheld by Branch 2 of the
Golestan Appeal Court on 16 March 2006.
9 Ali (or Alinezar)
Shabehzadeh
17
10 Abumoslem
Sohrabi,
Fars Branch 3,
Firoozabad Court
Branch 33,
Supreme Court
was 17 years old at the time when he was convicted of killing a 25 year-
old named Amin in Firoozabad in Fars province
11 Alireza 17 Tehran case # 2102,
Children´s Court,
April 2002
12 Ahmad 16 Branh 74, Tehran
Court
Branch 11, Supreme
Court, March 2008
Death sentence of another Iranian youth was veried by Iran's superior
court. According to Iran's ISCANEWS, in August of 2006, 22 year old
Mehdi was stabbed by 16 year old Ahmad and died in a Tehran hospital
after 6 months. Now that Ahmad's has reached the age of 18, his case
was reviewed by the Iran's Islamic superior court and he was sentenced
to death by hanging. ISCANEWS reported that in his defense Ahmad
told the court: “My father had an accident when I was only 16 years old
and I went to visit him because he was bed conned at my step uncle's
home. The water pipe inside the house was broken and my step mother
and female cousin had to go to street to wash the dishes (using the faucet
outside) and I was watching them from the window. Mehdi and two of his
friends who were sitting in the street started make wisecracks at them.
My stepmom and cousin came inside the home and Mehdi and his
friends sent a kid to enter our yard and check up on them. I went
downstairs and told the boy to leave our home. At this time Mehdi and
his friends came and started to beat me up until I fell and hit the dishes
that were at the entrance door. While on the ground I saw a kitchen knife
that was among the dishes and I picked it up to defend myself”. It is
anticipated that Ahmad's le will soon be sent to Iran's head of Judiciary,
Ayatollah Shahrudi for Estizan (permit to execute)
13 Alireza Movassali
Roudi
16 Qom case # 4786-85
T, Qom Criminal
Court
from Qom, was sentenced to death for a murder committed when
he was 16.
14 Ahmad Jabari 15 Khuzestan Branch 29,
Supreme Court,
case # 39/711
from Khuzestan, was sentenced to qesas for a killing committed when he
was 15. The sentence was upheld by Branch 29 of the Supreme Court.
15 Amir Amrollahi 16 Shiraz Branch 5, Shiraz
Penal Court
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
10/Nov/2007
The murder took place in November 2006 during a ght with another boy,
who was fatally stabbed. According to his lawyer, who took up his case
very recently, Amir Amrollahi stabbed the other boy in the chest because
he thought the other boy was about to attack him, and then panicked and
ran off. Then, according to eyewitnesses, there was a delay of at least half
an hour before any medical assistance reached the victim of the stabbing,
by which time his wound had proved fatal. His family are poor, so Amir
Amrollahi could not afford competent legal representation at his trial.
According to a lawyer who recently took over his case, the court did not
hear that the killing had been unintentional, or that he was prescribed
heavy doses of sedatives while in prison awaiting trial. His mental state at
the time of the incident was not properly considered.
16 Ahmad
Mortazavian
15 Isfahan Esfahan General
Court, January 2008
Ahmad Mortazavian allegedly stabbed another boy during a ght in
2007, when he was 15. He was sentenced by the penal court of Esfahan in
January 2008 and he’s awaiting his appeal.
52 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
involved in a ght with another group during which a young person
was killed. Amir Chalehchaleh was arrested and initially confessed but
later denied that he had been the killer. He was sentenced to qesas.In
his appeal, Amir Chalehchaleh refuted his confession and identied one
of his brothers as the killer. The brother had been released on bail and
subsquently disappeared. The court rejected Amir Chalehchaleh’s appeal
and sentenced him to qesas.The Supreme Court initially rejected the
verdict on account of deciencies in the investigation and the prosecution
case, but subsequently conrmed it. However, the Head of the Judiciary
has sent the case twice to the Discernment Branch of the Supreme Court,
whose decision is awaited.
18 Ahmad Nourzehi 12 sistan
Baluchistan
Revolutionary
Court, 2005
from Sistan-Baluchistan, was sentenced to death for carrying and
supplying heroin, apparently when he was 12.
19 Amir Tehran Branch 1156,
Tehran Besat
Judicial Complex
20 Akoo (or Abu)
Hosseini
Kordestan case # 1326, 3/
November/2003
Branch 27,
Supreme Court
from Kordestan, was sentenced to qesas for murder. The sentence was
upheld by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court.
21 Amir J. Tehran Branch 1601,
Tehran Criminal
Court, 22/Oct/2000
22 Ali 16 or
17
Tehran case # 2101, Tehran
Children´s Court,
April 2002
Branch 27, July
2002
23 Asghar Heidari 16 or
17
24 Ali Amiri (Afghan
Citizen)
15 Shriar Branch 74, Tehran
Criminal Court, 22/
July/2007
On 19 November 2007 Afghan national, Ali Amiri, had his death sentence
upheld by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court and his case was due to
be sent to the Ofce for Implementation of Sentences. Ali Amiri was
sentenced to death on 23 July 2007 by Branch 74 Tehran Criminal Court
- 22 July 2007According to a 19 November report by the Iranian Students
News Agency (ISNA), on 18 December 2005, Ali reportedly led an
eight-year-old boy called Jan Ahmad (also known as Ahmad) onto the site
of a partially built building in Shahriar, a city south-west of the capital,
Tehran, where Ali allegedly sexually assaulted him before killing him.
25 Ashkan 16 Branch 122, Special
Court for Children,
26/October/2003
26 Ali Alijan 17 Branch 71 Tehran
General Court
Ali Alijan was taken to be executed on 20 September 2006 for a crime
committed when he was under the age of 18. He was taken to the gallows
and had the noose tied around his neck. At the last minute, the family of
his victim halted the Ali Alijan was sentenced to qesas for the murder of a
young man called Behrooz in March 2004. During his trial before Branch
71 of Tehran Province Criminal Court, he insisted that the killing was not
premeditated execution.
27 Behador Khaleqi 16 Branch 1, Saqez
Public Court, 21/
June/2005
Branch 27,
Supreme Court, 13/
March/2005
Behador Khaleqi was sentenced to qesas on 31 June 2005 by Branch 1
of Saqqez General Court for a killing committed when he was 16. The
sentence was conrmed on 13 March 2006 by Branch 27 of the Supreme
Court. According to details given in the verdict, on 7 May 2005 Behador
Khaleqi and some friends were involved in a drunken ght with another
group during which someone was killed.
28 Behnam Zare 15 Fars Fars Penal Court,
13/November /2005
Branch 33,
Supreme Court, 14/
May/2007
Behnam Zare’ was convicted of a murder committed when he was 15
years old. He has been detained since his arrest in Adelabad prison, in
the south-western city of Shiraz. The murder reportedly took place on 21
April 2005, when Behnam Zare’ swung a knife during an argument with
a man named Mehrdad, wounding him in the neck. Mehrdad later died in
hospital. Behnam Zare’ was detained on 13 November 2005; Branch 5 of
Fars Criminal Court sentenced him to qesas (retribution) for premeditated
murder. The case went to appeal before Branch 33 of the Supreme Court
where the sentence was upheld, and it has now been passed to the Ofce
for Implementation of Sentences.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 53
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
29 Behnoud Shojaee 17 Branch 74, Tehran
General Court, 2/
Oct/06
Branch 33,
Supreme Court,
30/June/07
"On 18 June 2005, Behnoud Shojaee, then aged 17, intervened to stop a
ght between his friend Hesam and another boy named Omid in Park-
e-Vanak in Tehran. Behnoud Shojaee managed to separate the two boys
but Omid swore at him, started a ght and threatened him with a knife.
During the ght Behnoud Shojaee picked a shard of glass and stabbed
Omid once in the chest, before eeing the scene.
Behnoud Shojaee was sentenced to qesas (retribution) by Branch 74
of the Criminal Court in Tehran on 2 October 2006. During his trial,
Behnoud Shojaee was not afforded legal representation and was therefore
made to write a request for re-examination and re-trial of his case
himself. According to his lawyer who recently took up his case, Behnoud
Shojaee maintained throughout his trial that he only stabbed Omid once
even though the coroner’s report stated that the victim died as a result
of sustaining several injuries. His claims were never investigated and
Behnoud Shojaee’s sentence was nevertheless conrmed by Branch 33 of
the Supreme Court on 30 June 2007.
30 Benyamin Rasouli 16 or
17
Karaj Branch 74, Tehran
Penal Court
Supreme Court,
October 2005
31 Ebrahim Taleii, Tehran Branch 1602,
Tehran Criminal
Court, 25/July/1999
32 Fada Tehran Branch 71, Tehran
Children´s Court, 5/
March/2006
Branch 11, Supreme
Court, March 2001
33 Faramarz Faramarz Branch 71, Tehran
Penal Court, 2006
Branch 28,
Supreme Court,
September 2007
34 Farhad Tehran Branch 1157,
Tehran Criminal
Court
35 Farshad Sa'eedi 17
36 Farzad 15
37 Fazlorahman Jahraz 16
38 Feyz Mohammad,
16 (Afghanistan
Citizen)
16 Karaj Branch 122, Karaj
Children´s Court,
September 2004
Feiz Mohammad, who is from neighboring Afghanistan, was tried and
sentenced to death by judge Loqham Kia Pasha in Branch 122 of the
Special Juvenile Court of Karaj, 40 kilometers west of the capital, Tehran.
Mohammad was accused of stealing seven kilograms of pure morphine
from his employer, a ranch owner, and giving it to a group of Afghan
immigrants distributing drugs. He faced no other charges.
39 Feyzollah Soltani Yazd Revolutionary
Court
He was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Yazd for carrying
and supplying drugs, and drug addiction
40 Gholamnabi
Barahouti
16 Yazd Branch 10, Yazd
Pubic Court,
case # 2067, 6/
February/2003
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
case # 89
from Yazd, was sentenced to qesas for murder and theft, committed when
he was 16, by Branch 10 of Yazd General Court on 6 February 2003.
The sentence was upheld by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court.
41 Habib Afsar 15 Qom case # 1126-83
T, Qom Criminal
Court
from Qom, was sentenced to qesas for a murder committed when
he was 15.
42 Hajer 16 Karaj Branch 122, Karaj
Children´s Court,
January 2006
43 Halat
44 Hamed 15 Hamed was sentenced to death in May 2007 for killing a neighbor at the
age of 15. In his court testimony, he said he tricked the neighbour into
giving him money, believing that Hamed meant to give it to his father.
Later when the victim understood that Hamed had lied, they got into a
ght, where Hamed stabbed the man. During his court testimony Hamed
stated that he did not intend to kill, and asked forgiveness of the victim's
family. Although the two sons of the victim did not want Hamed to be
executed, his 4 daughters demanded his death penalty. Thereafter the
5 judges unanimously conrmed the death penalty
45 Hamed Pour-
Heydari
46 Hamid 17 Isfahan Branch 17, Isfahan
Penal Court
54 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
47 Hamid 17 Shahriar Branch 71, Tehran
Penal Court,
October 2005
Hamid (surname unknown) was sentenced to qesas for murder by Branch
71 of Tehran Province General Court in October 2005. The crime was
committed on 27 July 2004, when Hamid was 17 years old. According
to reports, Hamid stabbed a man, Davood Karimi, during a scufe with
several men over an incident that had taken place earlier that day. He
confessed to police, stating that he had stabbed Davood Karimi because
he was surrounded by several men who were attacking him, but that he
had not intended to kill him. The family of the victim asked to exercise
their right to retribution and called for the execution to be carried out.
No further details about the case are known. From Shahriar - Sentenced
by Branch 71, Tehran Penal Court - October 2005-
48 Hamid Reza 14 Hamid Reza from Gorgan. 14 when allegedly committed murder. Arrested
2 hours after the crime.
49 Hamzeh Setani 17 He was sentenced to qesas for the murder of his 20-year-old friend,
Mehdi, when he was only 17. During a quarrel with Mehdi, he stabbed
him and he died seven months later in a hospital in Tehran Note: a youth
called Hamzeh was pardoned in exchange for diyeh in 2007 but not clear
if it was the same person
50 Hani Momeni
Yasaghi
Golestan
Province
Public Court
of Gorgan, 20/
November/2004
Branch 26,
9/March/2005
51 Hassan Tehran
51 Hasan Mozaffari Bushehr Bushehr criminal
Court, case # 85/18
Branch 27,
Suprem Court,
case # 530/85
from Bushehr, was sentenced to death for rape with Mohammad Pezhman
and Rahman Shahidi
52 Hedayat Niroumand 14
or
15
Hedayat Niroumand from Qarni village was reported to have been
sentenced to qesas in December 2006 for killing his father. Hedayat
Niroumand had reportedly been arrested six months earlier – in around
June 2006.
53 Hossein Tehran Branch 37, Tehran
Public Court, 11/
April/1998
54 Hossein Haghi 17 Branch 74, Tehran
General Court 5/
Feb/2004
Branch 33 Supreme
Court 25/June/2004
On 12 August 2003, Hossein Haghi, then aged 16, and his friend, known
as Amrollah T, intervened to stop a ght between a friend of theirs and
another boy, Mehdi Khalili. A number of others were also involved in the
ght. According to his testimony, Hossein Haghi was held from behind,
and Mehdi Khalili started hitting him. Hossein Haghi was able to free his
hands, and retrieved a knife from his pocket to defend himself. Mehdi
Khalili was killed by a knife wound to the chest. Upon his arrest, Hossein
Haghi admitted to holding a knife and striking Mehdi Khalili to scare him
away. However during his trial, Hossein Haghi denied stabbing Mehdi
Khalili to death. On 8 February 2004 Hossein Haghi was sentenced to
qesas (retribution) by Branch 74 of the Criminal Court. On 25 June 2004,
the Supreme Court upheld his sentence. Hossein Haghi‘s defence lawyer
lodged a petition demanding a review of the case. Though the petition
was rejected, the case was re-examined, and has now been referred to
Branch 33 of the Supreme Court by the Head of the Judiciary.
55 Hossein Toranj 17
56 Iman Hashemi 16
or
17
Isfahan From Esfahan. Iman Hashemi was 17 in June 2006 when his brother
Majid was arrested for fatal stabbing of a man in a ght. Following his
brother’s arrest, Iman Hashemi was said to have presented himself to the
investigating authorities and confessed to having murdered.
57 Iman Nabavi, Semnan Branch 4, case #
15-471/85
58 Javad J. Tehran Branch 1602,
Tehran Criminal
Court
59 Javad Sh.
60 Javid 17
61 Kamal 17 Tehran Branch 71, Tehran
General Court,
12/April/2008
A court in Tehran has sentenced a minor offender to death, reported
the state run news agency ISCANEWS. He is identied as Kamal (17)
and is charged for murdering Shahin (24) one year ago, (10 April 2007)
according to the report. It is not clear whether Kamal was 17 at bthe time
of the alleged crime or he is 17 years old now.
62 Khodamorad
Shahemzadeh
17 sistan
Baluchistan
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 55
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
63 Khosrow 16 Branch 74, Tehran
General Court
November 2007
Khosrow aged 16 sentenced to death for the murder of 20 year -old
roomate Amin on 12 July 2007 - Sentenced Branch 74 Tehran General
Court in November 2007
64 Mahmoud 17
65 Majid Afshari Tehran Branch 1603, Tehran
Criminal Court
Supreme Court,
May 1999
66 Masoud Kafshir 17
67 Mehdi 16 Branch 71, Tehran
Children´s Court,
5/March/2006
Supreme Court,
30/May/2006
A criminal court in Robat-e Karim sentenced Mehdi (surname
unknown) to qesas in March 2006 for killing a boy, Hamid, according to
Hamshahri newspaper. His brother Morteza was sentenced to a term of
imprisonment for complicity in murder. According to the report, Mehdi
stabbed Hamid with a knife during a ght in a park in Robat Karim,
killing him. At the time of the trial, Mehdi was 18 and Morteza was
21. The incident had happened two years earlier, when Mehdi would
have been 16. Hamshahri reported that Mehdi accepted the charge of
intentional murder and that the mother of the victim had asked the court
for a qesas sentence. Branch 71, Tehran Children´s Court,
68 Mehdi Azimi
69 Mehdi Ghandali Semnan Samnan Penal
Court
Branch 4 ,
16/June/2006
70 Mehdi Bakhtiari Tehran Branch 74,Tehran
Children´s Court
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
November 2004
71 Mehran 17 Karaj Branch 77, Tehran
Children´s Court
72 Mehrdad 17 Tehran Branch 71,
Tehran´S Children´s
Court, 4/Feb/2006
73 Mehyar 17 Branch 2106 Tehran
Children's Court,
Mehyar (surname unknown) was arrested in December 1999 for the
murder of a 58-year-old woman in her home during a burglary. He was
sentenced to qesas by Branch 2106 of Tehran General Court. He also
received a sentence of ogging for possession of alcoholic drinks, and
three years' imprisonment for theft. It is common in Iran that people
sentenced to prison terms in addition to the death penalty serve some or
all of their prison sentence before execution.
74 Mehyar Haghgoo 17 Rasht Branch 102, Rasht
Penal Court
Mehyar is accused of killing his abusive and alcoholic father. According to
the report at the time of alleged murder , Mehyar's father was beating up
his mother. Mehyar seem to have suffered from temporary insanity at the
time. Mehyar's mother is jointly accused of murder of her husband. Mehyar
Haghgoo's death sentence has been conrmed by a court in the city of Rasht,
75 Mehyar Anvari 17 Golestan
Province
Branch 6,
Khoramabad Public
Court, 13/June/2004
case #690, Branch
27, Supreme Court
from Golestan, was sentenced to qesas for a murder committed when he
was 17, by Branch 3 of Khorramabad General Court. The sentence was
conrmed by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court.
76 Mehyar Zamani 16 Branch 102, Rasht
Children´s Court
77 Milad Bakhtiari 16
or
17
Tehran case # 2106, Tehran
Children´s Court,
August 2002
78 Mohammad
Ahmadi
16 Ghazvin Mohammad Feda’i attended a snooker club with his friends in Robat Karim,
a town near the city of Karaj, in Tehran province, when one of his friends
was involved in a ght with a group of about 17 young men. According
to his testimony, Mohammad Feda’i tried to break up the ght, but a boy
named Said started to hit him with a piece of wood. Mohammad Feda’i, who
was holding a knife handed to him by one of his friends, then, according to
his account, fell over. As Said was about to hit him again, he fatally stabbed
Said once in self defence. Said was transferred to hospital, where died three
hours later.The case went before Branch 71 of the Tehran Criminal Court
and Mohammad Feda’i was sentenced to qesas (retribution) for the murder
of Said on 12 March 2005. Although the ve sentencing judges in his case
found Mohammad Feda’i guilty, they also acknowledged in their written
verdict that the stabbing was an act of self-defence and that he had not been
adequately represented at his trial, as his rst legal representative was not
an accredited lawyer, and two lawyers hired later had only submitted one
written defence statement to the court during his trial. Nevertheless, the
death sentence against Mohammad Feda’i was upheld by Branch 27 of
the Supreme Court, and has been approved by the Head of the Judiciary.
Mohammad Feda’i had been due to be executed on 18 April 2007. However,
the execution was stayed on the basis of the inadequate legal representation
during his trial. A subsequent request to the Attorney General for a retrial
was rejected, and a new execution date was set.
56 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
79 Mohammad Fadaee 17 Mohammad Feda’i attended a snooker club with his friends in Robat
Karim, a town near the city of Karaj, in Tehran province, when one of
his friends was involved in a ght with a group of about 17 young men.
According to his testimony, Mohammad Feda’i tried to break up the ght,
but a boy named Said started to hit him with a piece of wood. Mohammad
Feda’i, who was holding a knife handed to him by one of his friends,
then, according to his account, fell over. As Said was about to hit him
again, he fatally stabbed Said once in self defence. Said was transferred
to hospital, where died three hours later.The case went before Branch 71
of the Tehran Criminal Court and Mohammad Feda’i was sentenced to
qesas (retribution) for the murder of Said on 12 March 2005. Although
the ve sentencing judges in his case found Mohammad Feda’i guilty,
they also acknowledged in their written verdict that the stabbing was an
act of self-defence and that he had not been adequately represented at his
trial, as his rst legal representative was not an accredited lawyer, and
two lawyers hired later had only submitted one written defence statement
to the court during his trial. Nevertheless, the death sentence against
Mohammad Feda’i was upheld by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court, and
has been approved by the Head of the Judiciary. Mohammad Feda’i had
been due to be executed on 18 April 2007. However, the execution was
stayed on the basis of the inadequate legal representation during his trial.
A subsequent request to the Attorney General for a retrial was rejected,
and a new execution date was set.
80 Mohammad Ghos 17 Court in Mashhad Mohammad Ghos (son of Mohmmad Sharif) is an Afghan boy who is
facing execution in Iran. Mohammad was arrested at the age of 17 in Iran
and charged with smuggling narcotics. Mohammad was arrested in Havai
circle of the city of Mashhad in Eastern part of Iran. He was charged
with carrying 820 grams of crystal meth which he had swallowed before
crossing the Iranian border with a false passport. Mohammad was from
the village of Faghedan near the city of Harat in Afghanistan. Mohammad
was sentenced to death by a court in Mashad, Iran and he is presently kept
in Vakilabad prison.
81 Mohammad Jahedi 16 Fasa Branch 4, Fasa
Public Court, 25/
December/2003
Branch 27,
Supreme Court
Mohammad Jahedi is sentenced to death for a murder committed when
he was 16. He has spent 5 years in the Adel Abad prison of the central
city of Shiraz.
82 Mohammad Jamali
Paghale
15 Mohammad Jamali Paghale was 15 when he allegedly killed his friend.
He was initially sentenced to ve years’ imprisonment by a children’s
court. However, the Supreme Court overturned this and issued a death
sentence.
83 Mohammad M. Shiraz Shiraz Criminal
Court, 2004
Supreme Court
84 Mohammad Mavari 16 Golestan
Province
Branch 2,
Kerdkoori
Public Court, 18/
August/2000
Branch 40, case #
40/28
85 Mohammad
Pezhman
Bushehr Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
case # 530/85
from Bushehr, was sentenced to death for rape with Hassan Mozaffari and
Rahman Shahidi
86 Mohammadreza Tehran case # 1602, Tehran
Criminal Court
Branch 33,
30/September/2002
87 Mohammadreza
Haddadi
16 Shiraz Branch 42,
Supreme Court
Mohammadreza Haddadi was sentenced to death by hanging for an
alleged murder of an old man at the age of 15. Mohammadreza is now
18 years old and is kept at the Adelabad prison in the central city of
Shiraz, Iran. His appeal has been denied by the superior court and the le
has been sent to the division of enforcement of verdicts and awaiting the
nal execution permit by Ayatollah Shahrudi, the head of Iran's judiciary.
88 Mohammdshah
Ghaderi
Tehran Branch 1608,
Tehran Criminal
Court, June 1999
89 Mohammad (Alias:
Seyfollah)
Tehran Branch 71,
Tehran´S Children´s
Court, 23/Jan/2006
90 Mojtaba 17 Tehran case # 1188 , Tehran
Children´s Court,
August 2003
91 Morteza 17 Tehran Branch 74, Tehran
Penal Court
92 Morteza Feizi 16 or
17
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 57
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
93 Mosleh Zamani 17 2006 Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
July 2007
Mosleh Zamani, who was sentenced to death in 2006, is now is facing
imminent execution. His sentence was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court
in early July. His sentence, which was delivered on 17 July to judicial
authorities charged with carrying out verdicts, could be carried out at any
time. He is held in Sanandaj.He was reportedly found guilty of abducting
a woman some 10 years older than him, with whom he was allegedly
having a relationship, and forcing her to have sex with him. There are
conicting reports as to whether Mosleh Zamani was aged 17 or 18 at the
time the alleged abduction took place.
94 Mostafa 16 Tehran Branch 74, Tehran
Criminal Court
Branch 33,
Supreme Court,
August 2005
Mostafa (surname unknown) was convicted in around August 2005 of
killing an intoxicated man in the Pars district of Tehran. According to the
report, Mostafa was 16 years old at the time and had been trying to stop
the man from harassing a girl. The man reportedly started hitting Mostafa,
who eventually killed him in the ensuing scufe.
95 Mostafa Sa'idi Central
Province
Saveh General and
Revolutionary Court
Branch 42,
Supreme Court
96 Mostafa Naghdi
97 Nabavat Baba'I 17 In 2002 or 2003, a game between 17-year-old Nabovat Baba’i and
another youth, Zabihollah Qasemian, turned serious after Zabihollah
allegedly broke a light on Nabovat Baba’i’s motorbike and ed into a
nearby shop. Nabovat Baba’i followed him in and allegedly threw a metal
rod at his head, injuring him. Delays in getting Zabihollah Qasemian to
hospital contributed to his death. The court sentenced Nabovat Baba’i to
qesas, which was conrmed by the Supreme Court in 2006. The victim’s
father does not want retribution, but the victim’s mother does.
98 Naeem Kolbali 15 Sistan
baluchistan
Branch 102,
Zahedan Criminal
Court
from Sistan-Baluchistan, was sentenced to qesas for drug addiction when
he was 15, by Branch 102 of Zahedan General Court.
99 Naser Qasemi 15 Naser Qasemi, a resident of Siyah Kamar Soa, near Mahidasht,
Kermanshah, was only 15 years old at the time of the killing for which he
was convicted. He has been in prison facing execution for more than eight
years, during which he has been sentenced to death on no less than three
occasions. According to the verdict, issued on 20 August 1999, Naser
Qasemi went with his uncle to a farm to steal maize. The owners noticed
them and tried to stop them. In the ght, the uncle’s gun allegedly fell to
the ground and Naser Qasemi red it. One person died. The uncle escaped
but Naser Qasemi was arrested. Naser Qasemi was tried in October
or November 1999 and sentenced to payment of diyeh. Branch 37 of
the Supreme Court ruled that this verdict contravened Islamic law, and
subsequently Branch 29 of Kermanshah General Court sentenced Naser
Qasemi to qesas. The Supreme Court then found the verdict decient
because of the lack of a confession. Branch 33 of Kermanshah General
Court sentenced him to qesas again, and Branch 37 of the Supreme Court
conrmed the sentence. At the stage of seeking permission for execution,
the Assistant Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court ruled that the
investigation should have been conducted by the children’s court and
sent it there for investigation. Subsequently, Branch 106 of Kermanshah
Criminal Court (Children) again sentenced Naser Qasemi to qesas. The
relatives of the victim want 70 million rials (approximately US$7,500) as
diyeh which Naser Qasemi’s family cannot raise.
100
Nemat 16
or
17
Isfahan Branch 106, Isfahan
Criminal Court
Supreme Court,
1/May/2006
Ne’mat (surname unknown) was 17 when the Supreme Court upheld
his death sentence in around May 2006, placing him at imminent risk of
execution. Ne’mat was reportedly arrested for the January 2003 murder
of his sister Zohra’s husband, Haydar Ali. According to children’s rights
activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotudeh, he was 15 years old at the time.After
his arrest, Ne’mat reportedly denied involvement in the killing. However,
following interrogation, he confessed. He was tried before Branch 106 of
the General Court in Esfahan and sentenced to qesas.
101
Nosrat 15 15 year old Nosrat was initially convicted of murder by a lower court
judge, but was found innocent by 2 of the 5 judges in an Iranian appeal
court. During the appeal process 3 of the panel of 5 judges conrmed the
death penalty, but the 2 others voted against it, stating that the mental
age and maturity must be given the priority. Since the 5 judges could not
come to a unanimous decision, the case is sent to the Iran's supreme court
for nal determination.
102
Omarraddin
Alkuzehi
17 Yazd Branch 101, Taft
Public Court,
12/January/2003
Branch 26,
Supreme Court
from Yazd, who was sentenced to qesas for murder committed when he
was 17 by Branch 101 of Taft General Court on 31 December 2003.
The sentence was upheld by Branch 26 of the Supreme Court.
58 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
103
Omid Sarani 17 sistan
Baluchistan
Branch 102,
Zahedan Criminal
Court
from Sistan-Baluchistan, was sentenced to qesas for a murder committed
when he was 17, by Branch 102 of Zahedan General Court.
104
Rahim Ahmadi 16 Fars Branch 5, Fars
Penal Court,
20/January/2007
Branch 37,
Supreme Court
105
Rahman Shahidi Bushehr Bushehr criminal
Court, case # 85/18
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
case # 530/85
from Bushehr, was sentenced to death for rape with Hassan Mozaffari
and Mohammad Pezhman
106
Ramdar 17 Shiraz case # 12, Shiraz,
June 2004
107
Ramin Golshani Tehran Tehran Criminal
Court, November
1997
Supreme Court,
June 1998
108
Rasoul Eyvatvandi 17 Rasoul Eyvatvandi was 17 when he shot dead one of his friends in an
act of revenge. He was sentenced to qesas, which was conrmed by the
Supreme Court.
109
Rasoul Mohammadi 17 Rasoul Mohammadi was 17 when he was scheduled to be executed at the
same time as his father, Mousa Ali Mohammadi. Both were to be ogged
74 times before their execution.
110
Rasoul Nouriyani Hamedan Hamedan Penal
Court
from Hamedan, was sentenced to death for rape by Hamedan General
Court.
111 Rasoul Safari 17 Gilangharb Branch 1
Gilangharb General
Court
Branch 33 Supreme
court found
verdict decienct.
Not clear what
happened
subsequently
Rasoul Safari was sentenced to qesas by Branch 1 of the General Court
of Gilangharb on 7 September 2005 for a killing committed when he
was 17. On 19 March 2006 Branch 33 of the Supreme Court found the
verdict decient. According to reports, on 5 November 2004 Rasoul
Safari had gone to the mountains with two friends. That evening, the
man who was subsequently killed went to the mountains with a friend
intending to frighten Rasoul Safari and his friends as a joke. They scared
the three friends by throwing stones and howling like a wild animal. The
three hurried from the mountains, but the man followed them and, with
his head and face hidden, attacked them with a club (gorz). This led to a
ght between the man and the three friends, during which Rasoul Safari
allegedly killed the man with a stab to the stomach. During the trial,
Rasoul Safari denied the charge and said: "I did not carry out a killing.
The confessions I made were [made] under …torture."
112
Reza 16 Tehran case # 1157, Tehran
Criminal Court,
June 2003
113
Reza Islamshahr October, 2003
114
Reza 15 Shiraz Branch 2, Fars
Province General
Court, September
2007
Reza, aged 15, from Marvdasht, was reportedly sentenced to death in
mid-September 2007 by a Court in Fars south western Iran. He was
reportedly sentenced to death along with Mohammad, aged 18, charged
with the rape and murder in April 2007 of Karim Tajik, aged 9, and
Mohammed Shiri, aged 10. Reza and Mohammad were also reportedly
sentenced to three years imprisonment and 100 lashes each. Two other
defendants were reportedly involved in the case; one of them was
acquitted and the other sentenced to ogging.
115
Reza Alinejad 17 Branch 10, Fasa
General Court
15/June 2005
Supreme Court
9 May 2006
Reza Alinejad was sentenced to death or a killing committed when he was
17 years old. The incident happened on 26 December 2002 in a street in
Fasa, a city near Shiraz in central Iran. Reza Alinejad says that two men
attacked him and his friend, with a martial arts weapon. He says he pulled
out a pocket knife during the struggle and accidentally stabbed and killed
Esmail Daroudi. In December 2004 the Supreme Court rejected the death
sentence, accepting that Reza Alinejad had acted in self-defence. The
Supreme Court sent the case back to another lower court for investigation.
The case was heard by Branch 101 of Fasa Provincial Criminal Court,
which on 15 June 2005 sentenced Reza Alinejad to death again. It
concluded that Reza Alinejad could have ed the scene and had therefore
acted unreasonably. On 9 May 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the death
sentence.
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 59
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
116
Seyed Reza Hejazi 15 Isfahan Reza Hejazi – then aged 15 - was among a small group of people
involved in a dispute with a man on 18 September 2004, which resulted
in the man being fatally stabbed. Reza Hejazi was arrested and tried
for murder, and on 14 November 2005 he was sentenced to Qesas
(retribution) by Branch 106 of the Esfahan General Court. The sentence
was approved by Branch 28 of the Supreme Court on 6 June 2006,
although under Iranian law he should have been tried in a juvenile court.
The case was referred for mediation between Reza Hejazi and the victim's
family, to try and arrange for the payment of diyeh, but no sum has yet
been agreed. If no agreement is reached, Reza Hejazi will be executed.
117
Reza Padashi 16 Branch 71, Tehran
Penal Court,
20/February/2005
Branch 37,
Supreme Court,
3/September/2006
Reza Padashi was sentenced to death for killing his friend in 2003, when
he was 16.
118
Saber
119
Sadegh Ahmadpour Chahar
Mahal/
Bakhtiari
Branch 104,
Shahrkurd Public
Court
Branch 27,
Supreme Court,
23/July/2006
Sadegh Ahmadpour was sentenced to qesas for a killing committed when
he was 17 by Branch 104 of Shahikord General Court. The sentence was
upheld by Branch 27 of the Supreme Court on 22 July 2004.
120
Saeed Jazee 17 Branch 1183,
Children´s Court,
21/May/2005
Saeed Jazee's death sentence has been approved by the Head of the
Judiciary. Saeed Jazee, a sculptor, is held in a young offenders centre in
Karaj, Tehran Province. He was convicted of the murder of a 22-year-old
man, which took place in 2003 when he was 17 years old, and sentenced
to qesas (retribution). The Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and his
case was sent for nal approval to the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. The killing apparently took place after
Saeed Jazee had gone to a friend’s sandwich shop, helped himself to a
sandwich and started eating it. The 22-year-old man, who had just started
working at the shop and did not know Saeed, started arguing with him
about the sandwich and attacked him with a kitchen knife. During the
scufe, the knife fell to the oor and Saeed picked it up at the same time
as the man charged at him and was wounded in the process. Saeed Jazee
and the other employees in the shop tried to help him. During the trial, the
shop's other employees stated that the killing had been accidental. Saeed
Jazee has repeatedly stated that the killing was not intentional.
121
Saeed Arab Golestan
Province
Pubilc and
Revolutionary
Court of Gorgan
From Golestan, he was sentenced to qesas for murder
122
Saeed Heydari Tehran 60
123
Safar Angooti 17 Branch
71, Tehran
General
Court
"A 17-year-old Iranian youth who knifed and killed a rival suitor for a
girl has been sentenced to death by a court in Tehran, a newspaper said on
27/4/08. The accused attacked the victim after nding out he was talking
to the girl in question, the Etemad daily said.""I have killed him but not
intentionally,"" the young man, identied only with his rst name, Safar,
told the court.
“I did this because I was inexperienced and I was angry. I ask them (the
family of the victim) to forgive me,” he said. But the victim’s father said
Safar had killed his son Mehdi and deserved the punishment. “I don’t
know the reason why they got into a ght but Safar has killed my son and
he should be killed,” he said.
124
Safarali Tehran Branch 1156,
Tehran Besat
Judicial Complex
125
Sajjad 17
126
Salah Taseb 15 Sanandaj Salah Taseb son of Nameq born 1990 who committed murder in the age
of 15, was transferred to Sanandaj prison yesterday (22 June 08) from
Youth Offending Centre for his sentence to be carried out. He has just
turned 18. He and his family have been told that his execution is being
scheduled for end of Tir 1387 = 23rd June till 23rd July 2008.
127
Salman Akbari 17 Ardebil Public Court of
Arshagh,
14/July/2003
case # 2-8728/7 From Ardabil, he was sentenced to death in July 2003 for a killing
committed when he was 17.
128
Siyavash Shirnejad Lorestan Branch 107,
Khoramabad
Criminal Court,
9/May/2006
From Nosratan, he was sentenced to qesas for murder by Branch 107
of Khorramabad General Court on 9 May 2006
129
Vahid 16 Tehran Branch 71, Tehran
Children´s Court,
6/Nov/2004
Vahid was reportedly sentenced to death for the murder of his friend
Mehdi. He claims that he killed him in self-defence after he tried to
sexually assault him. No further details are known. A youth named Vahid
was executed in Evin Prison in September 2006, but it is not clear if this
was the same person or not.
60 / Iran: death penalty – FIDH
NAME
AGE*
CITY OR
PROVINCE
LOWER COURT APPEAL COURT
130
Zahir 15 Tehran case # 77, Tehran
Children´s Court,
2004
131
Zolf'ali Hamzeh, Central
Province
Branch 2, Saveh
General Court
From Central Province, he was sentenced to qesas for rape and murder by
Branch 2 of Saveh General Court
132
Unknown 17 June 3 - 2004 Supreme Court,
20/June/2006
133
Unknown Kerman Branch 101,
Kerman Court
Supreme Court
At least 16 Afghan
Nationals
Khorasan According to the Child Rights Support Section of the Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), at least a further
16 juvenile offenders are reportedly held in prisons in Iran charged with
drug smuggling. In October 2007, the Iranian deputy foreign affairs
minister denied that any Afghan children had been executed or were
under sentence of death. He said that drug smuggling was a crime in Iran
and that those who do this and are minors will be tried in a special court
for children, and will not be sentenced to death penalty. In fact, anyone
who commits this crime, be they Iranian or foreigners will be dealt with
through legal channels. On 2 November 2007, the Afghan Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Kabul summoned the Iranian representative there
to complain, amongst other things, about reports that Afghan minors
had been sentenced to death for smuggling drugs. The Deputy Foreign
Minister, Mohammad Kabir Farahi reportedly said “these children are
being misused by drug smugglers and their conviction is contrary to
human rights, international standards and the very good relations between
two countries.”
SAUDI ARABIA (3):
- Rizana Nafeek (female), 17 year
- Sultan Bin Sulayman Bin Muslim al-Muwallad, 15 year
- Issa bin Muhammad ‘Umar Muhammad, 13 year
SUDAN (3):
- Abdelrhman Zakaria Mohamed, 16 year
- Ahmed Abdullah Suleiman , 16 year
- Al-Tayeb Abdel Aziz, 16 year
YEMEN (1):
- Hafez Ibrahim
* Ages are at the time of alleged crime.
KNOWN CHILD EXECUTIONS (2007, 2008):
IRAN (11)
2007
- Makwan Moloudzadeh Male-17 (executed on December 5, 2007)
- Mohammad Mousavi, Male-16 (Mohammad is listed on SCE petition but he was executed on April 22, 2007)
- Saeed Kamberzai, Male-17 (executed on May 28, 2007)
- Babak Rahimi, Male-17 (executed on October 17, 2007)
- Hossein Gharabaghloo, Male-16 (executed on October 17, 2007)
- 2 Afghan Boys executed in Iran (reported by BBC and Afghanistan Independent human rights commission)
- Mohammad Reza Turk (executed on November 15, 2007)
- Amir Houshang (executed on December 7, 2007)
2008
- Javad Shojaee (executed on February 26, 2008)
- Mohammad Hassanzadeh (executed on June 10, 2008)
SAUDI ARABIA (1)
2007
- Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’i Male-15 (executed on July 21, 2007)
FIDH – Iran: death penalty / 61
Cover picture:
A young man charged
with killing an Islamic
Revolutionary Court
judge is hanged from
a crane in public in
front of the judge’s
picture
This page:
A woman hanged
from a crane in public
© Getty images
Keep your eyes open
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investigative and trial observation missions
Through activities ranging from sending trial observers to organising international investigative missions, FIDH
has developed, rigorous and impartial procedures to establish facts and responsibility. Experts sent to the eld
give their time to FIDH on a voluntary basis.
FIDH has conducted more than 1 500 missions in over 100 countries in the past 25 years. These activities
reinforce FIDH’s alert and advocacy campaigns.
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FIDH organises numerous activities in partnership with its member organisations, in the countries in which they
are based. The core aim is to strengthen the inuence and capacity of human rights activists to boost changes
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Mobilising the international community
permanent lobbying before intergovernmental bodies
FIDH supports its member organisations and local partners in their efforts before intergovernmental organisa-
tions.FIDH alerts international bodies to violations of human rights and refers individual cases to them. FIDH also
takes part inthe development of international legal instruments.
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Imprimerie de la FIDH - Dépôt légal Avril 2009 - Fichier informatique conforme à la loi du 6 janvier 1978 - (Déclaration N° 330 675)
FIDH
human rights organisations
on
represents 155
continents
5
Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme
17, passage de la Main d’Or - 75011 Paris - France
CCP Paris : 76 76 Z
Tel: (33-1) 43 55 25 18 / Fax: (33-1) 43 55 18 80
Site internet: http://www.fidh.org
Director of the publication: Souhayr Belhassen
Editor: Antoine Bernard
Author: Bijan Baharan
Coordination of the report: Karim Lahidji, Florence Bellivier
and Isabelle Brachet
PAO: Kyodo & Alex
Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the
competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9: No one shall
be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an
independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11:
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at
which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act
or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall
a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. Article 12: No one shall
be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom
of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country. Article 14: (1) Everyone has the right to see and
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• FIDH takes action for the protection of victims of human rights violations,
for the prevention of violations and to bring perpetrators to justice.
• A broad mandate
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Declaration of Human Rights: civil and political rights, as well as
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in more than 100 countries around the world. FIDH coordinates and supports
their activities and provides them with a voice at the international level.
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and is independent of all governments.
Find information concerning FIDH 155 member organisations on www.fidh.org
About FIDH
FIDH
human rights organisations
on
represents 155
continents
5
