Iran hangs nine on “murder”, “rape” charges
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
14:10GMT—10:10AM/EST
IRAN – EXECUTIONS
Washington, 11 June (IranVNC)—Iran today executed eight men convicted of murder or rape, one day after a juvenile offender in the western city of Sanandaj was put to death for murder.
Of those sent to the gallows today in Tehran’s Evin Prison, three men were convicted of “seducing and raping women” and five men were each found guilty of “killing at least one person”, the website of Iran’s state television said.
Yesterday, Mohammad Hassan-Zadeh was hanged in prison in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, the website of Human Rights Activists in Iran reported.
Hassan-Zadeh was 15 years old when he was convicted of killing someone in a group scuffle.
Two other juvenile offenders – Mohammad Fada’i and Behnoud Shoja’i – were also set to be executed today, but yesterday they won a one-month stay so that they can reach an agreement with the victims’ families over blood money.
Davoud Mahdour, also set to be put to death today, was granted a one-month reprieve as well, according to AFP.
Iran’s Judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, granted the suspension amid protests by United Nations and European Union officials, who called on Iran to stay the executions of Fada’i, Shoja’i and two other individuals who were under the age of 18 when they allegedly committed their crimes.
The two other offenders, Said Jazi and Behnam Zareh, are set to be hanged later this month.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, and the EU Presidency, currently headed by Slovenia, said yesterday Iran should stay the executions in compliance with its international legal obligations, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the execution of minors or people who were minors at the time of their conviction.
Iran has executed at least 108 people this year, in what the rights group Human Rights and Democracy in Iran has called a “new wave of executions” aimed at “creating fear among the people.”
Last year, the Islamic Republic sent at least 317 people to the gallows, second only to China, an Amnesty International report found earlier this year.
The rights group also said that as of January 2008, at least 86 juvenile offenders were awaiting execution in Iran.
Sources: IRIB news, Human Rights Activists in Iran website, Agence France-Presse, Amnesty International website, Human Rights and Democracy in Iran blog
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