Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Promoting tolerance and justice through knowledge and understanding
Amnesty International

Juvenile Offender Salar Shadizadi’s Execution Date Changed

Amnesty International
‍Amnesty International
August 3, 2015
Appeal/Urgent Action

 

Juvenile offender Salar Shadizadi’s execution has been postponed to 10 August. He remains at imminent risk of execution after a conviction for murder. He was 15 years old at the time of the crime.

Salar Shadizadi’s execution in Lakan Prison, Rasht, northern Iran, has been postponed for 10 days from the initial date of 1 August to 10 August. The change occurred late on 31 July. He remains in solitary confinement.

Salar Shadizadi was arrested in February 2007 and charged with the murder of a friend. He was not granted access to a lawyer at the investigative stage and was only allowed to retain a lawyer when his case was sent to court for trial. He says that he was also tortured and otherwise ill-treated during the investigative stage when he was held in the Investigation Unit (Agahi) in Rasht. He was first sentenced to death in December 2007 under the Islamic principle of qesas (retribution-in-kind) by Branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Appeal in Gilan province, which sat as a court of first-instance. Branch 37 of the Supreme Court upheld the sentence three months later.

In 2013, Salar Shadizadi submitted a request for judicial review based on a new article in Iran’s revised Penal Code, passed into law in May 2013. Branch 13 of Iran’s Supreme Court accepted the request for judicial review and sent the case back to the court of first instance to examine Salar Shadizadi’s maturity at the time of the crime. The court then referred Salar Shadizadi to Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization (LMO) for psychological examination. The LMO found that “there is no evidence to conclude that Salar Shadizadi was insane at the time of the crime but examining his mental growth seven years after the event is impossible.” Based on this finding, Branch 13 of the Supreme Court upheld the original death sentence.

Please write immediately in Persian, English, Spanish, French or your own language: 

n        Urging the Iranian authorities to immediately halt the execution of Salar Shadizadi and ensure that his death sentence is quashed and he is granted a retrial that complies with international fair trial standards, without recourse to the death penalty; 

n        Reminding them that Iran has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which strictly prohibit the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by persons below the age of 18. 

 

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 14 SEPTEMBER 2015 TO: 

Leader of the Islamic Republic 

Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei         

The Office of the Supreme Leader 

Islamic Republic Street- End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street         

Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran         

Email: via website http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php? 

p=letter         

Twitter: @khamenei_ir (English) or @Khamenei_es (Spanish) 

Salutation: Your Excellency 

Head of the Judiciary 

Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani         

c/o Public Relations Office 

Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection 

Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran 

Email: [email protected]   

Salutation: Your Excellency 

 

 

 

 

 

And copies to: 

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran 

Hassan Rouhani         

The Presidency 

Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square         

Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran         

Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) @Rouhani_ir (Persian)