Iran: Further information on Fear of imminent execution
AI Index: MDE 13/122/2006
Further Information on UA 220/05 (MDE 13/047/2005, 24 August 2005) Fear of imminent execution
IRAN Mostafa (surname unknown) (m), aged 17, student
Sina Paymand (surname previously unknown) (m), aged 18, musician
Child offender Sina Paymand was granted a last-minute reprieve by the family of the man he allegedly murdered.
Sina Paymand was convicted of murder after a dispute with a man over cannabis in 2004. Sina Paymand reportedly told the Court that he was addicted to drugs and had gone to a park in Tehran on the day of the incident to try and obtain cannabis from a drug dealer. He allegedly stabbed the drug dealer to death during a fight. He was aged 16 at the time. According to his lawyer, the sentencing court did not properly consider evidence that Sina Paymand suffered from a mental disorder.
The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, and he was scheduled to be hanged on 20 September, two weeks after his 18th birthday. When he was taken to the execution site, where the noose was placed around his neck, he was asked if he had a last request. Sina Paymand asked if he could play the flute. According to reports, the family members of the victim who were present to witness the execution were very moved by his playing, and agreed to forgive him and accept the payment of diyeh (blood money). In Iran, family members are asked just before the execution is carried out if they wish to forgo their right to retribution and forgive the condemned.
According to reports, Sina Paymand’s father is now is discussions with the family of the murder victim regarding the diyeh. If an agreement is not reached, Sina will again face execution. He is currently detained in Reja-i Shahr prison in Karaj, near Tehran.
According to reports, another child offender, Ali Alijan, now 19 years old, was scheduled to be executed at the same time as Sina Paymand for a murder committed while he was under the age of 18. He too received a last-minute reprieve from the family of the murder victim. A third individual named Vahid was executed. Different reports have put his age at 18, 20, and 21 years old. It is not known whether he was also a child offender.
There is no further information on Mostafa, who was also sentenced to death for murder.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International has recorded at least one executions of child offender in 2006, Majid Segound (m). He was executed on 13 May 2006, along with an unnamed 20-year-old male, in Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province. According to reports, they were sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old boy, and were tried in an extraordinary session. Majid Segound was 17 years old at the time of his execution. In 2005 Amnesty International recorded eight executions of child offenders in Iran, including two who were under the age of 18 at the time of their execution. A number of child offenders are under sentence of death in Iran. Exact numbers are not known, but cases Amnesty International is working on include Nazanin Fatehi (f), Delara Darabi (f), Ne’mat (m), Mehdi (m), Mohammad Mousavi (m), and Hamid Reza (m).
RECOMMENDED ACTION: PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO ARRIVE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, IN PERSIAN, ARABIC, ENGLISH OR YOUR OWN LANGUAGE:
- urging the authorities to commute the death sentence of Sina Paymand;
- asking for further details of the case against Mostafa, another child offender facing execution;
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment;
- urging the authorities to commute the death sentences of all child offenders sentenced to death in Iran;
- calling on the authorities to urgently pass legislation abolishing the death penalty for all offences for child offenders, in accordance with Iran’s obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
APPEALS TO: (FAX NUMBERS AND E-MAIL ADDRESSES FOR IRAN ARE UNRELIABLE SO PLEASE SEND LETTERS IF YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH)
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: [email protected]OR [email protected]
Fax: + 98 251 774 2228 (mark "FAO the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei")
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: Please send emails via the feedback form on the Persian site of the website:
http://www.iranjudiciary.org/contactus-feedback-fa.html
(The text of the feedback form translates as: 1st line: name, 2nd line: email address, 3rd line: subject heading, then enter your email into the text box)
COPIES TO:
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Imam Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: [email protected]
AND TO DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES OF IRAN ACCREDITED TO YOUR COUNTRY.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 7 December 2006.