Iran Cited Over Execution of Minors

Washington Post ^ | Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | Nora Boustany

[Sopater]

71 Child Offenders Are on Death Row, According to Rights Group

In a troubling report on the execution of minors in Iran, Amnesty International said yesterday that at least 71 child offenders are on death row and more than 24 have been executed since 1990, more than in any other country.

Defendants younger than 18 are being hanged after swift decisions and hurried procedures, said the report, "Iran: The Last Executioner of Children." Of the 24 child offenders reported executed, 11 were still younger than 18 at the time of their deaths.

The 41-page report lists names and details of each known case but says the actual number of executions was higher because many death penalty cases in Iran go unreported. In the last three years, only three other countries used the death penalty against minors: China executed one child offender in 2004, Sudan executed two in 2005 and Pakistan executed one in 2006.

[Sopater]

Under Iranian law, capital offenses include adultery by married people, incest, rape, four convictions of an unmarried person for fornication, three convictions for drinking alcohol, or four convictions for homosexual acts among men.

Fornication and drinking alcohol seem like the most likely offenses that would be commited by minors...

[nikos1121]

And I think six offenses for fornication with a camel.

[kromike]

oooooh, watch out Iran, A.I. is mad at you. If you don't straighten up and fly right, why, they'll...they'll...they'll just write a letter and tell you again how mad they are.

/s

[Smedley]

The most prominent capital case is that of Atefeh Rajabi , who was hanged on Aug. 15, 2004, in the town of Neka, in northern Mazandaran province. She was 16 and had been sentenced to death for a fourth conviction of crimes against chastity. Her crimes included being alone in a car with a boy and being caught at a cafe without a chaperon.

Wow, good thing too. Can't have girls like that running about Tehran. Caught at a cafe without a chaperon! Shocking!!!!

[sanchmo]

I wonder if SCOTUS justices Ginsberg & Kennedy will use this foreign law / practice as justification for executing minors in the USA.
/sarcasm

[Asclepius]

In a troubling report on the execution of minors in Iran, Amnesty International said yesterday that at least 71 child offenders are on death row and more than 24 have been executed since 1990, more than in any other country.

Yeah, whatever. I don't take AI seriously anymore. Especially since their ruling on abortion etc.

[mvpel]

The US should limit its moral outrage over this practice, as it was only ended here by a 5-4 decision of the US Supreme Court in 2005, and 227 juveniles were sentenced to death between then and 1976, and Texas executed 22.

Here’s some old threads, it’ll be interesting to compare the comments about Iran with the comments about the US made years ago as this thread gets rolling...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1065970/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1234816/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b7a1923413d.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354056/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/759981/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1174318/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971072/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1243643/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/830853/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/984365/posts

[Smedley]

The US should limit its moral outrage over this practice, as it was only ended here by a 5-4 decision of the US Supreme Court in 2005, and 227 juveniles were sentenced to death between then and 1976, and Texas executed 22.

Any of them based on getting caught in a cafe w/o a chaperon??

[weegee]

How about Amnesty International investigating the execution of adults because they are not muslims (especially those who are guilty of the “crime” of leaving Islam for another faith)?

[weegee]

Also doesn’t Amnesty International consider abortion a universal right?

Seems that it is okay to kill small children in their eyes.

[weegee]

If the state didn’t kill her, her own family might have committed an honor killing.

[Frapster]

I read your first 6 articles - there’s no comparison. The first two deal with a young man (17) who broke into a home, used electrical chord and duct tape to hog tie a woman who he then threw over a railroad trestle into the river below where she drowned.

Ummmm... i say hang him high.

Now - as another has already pointed out - when we start hanging people for being caught without a chaperon or being alone with another person in a car... you might have a point. But right now you don’t.

[Sopater]

Also doesn’t Amnesty International consider abortion a universal right?

I believe so...

CONCERNED also that in more than 70 countries with particularly restrictive abortion laws, women are imprisoned for seeking of having had abortions;

[mvpel]

If Iran is hanging people for fornication or lack of chaperone, the question is not the death penalty or the execution of minors, it’s their oppressive and brutal legal system.