How Does Iran Carry Out Secret Executions of Crimes Committed in Childhood?

Human rights reports about Iran's violations of international laws are dramatically increasing. One of the manifestations of these shocking violations is the execution, during the year 2021, of 85 people for crimes allegedly committed in childhood.

The British newspaper The Times quoted the annual report of human rights groups in Iran as saying that, until the ninth of last October, the Iranian authorities executed 299 citizens, and that there are more than 85 people waiting for the death penalty for crimes allegedly committed in childhood.

The Human rights activists estimated that about 100 young people are secretly executed in Iran each year in a clear breaking of all the international laws.

The organization accused the Iranian judicial authorities of secretly conducting more than 82% of the executions, noting that secret executions included both juveniles and adults, and that the number of young people who are hanged annually can be estimated at 100.

The organization said: “In many cases, confessions were extracted under torture and after long periods of solitary confinement.”

It pointed out that: “According to Islamic law in Iran, boys over the age of 15 and girls over the age of nine may be punished and executed the same as adults for murder and some other crimes that are punishable by death.” It is noteworthy that the law of the International Criminal Court prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18.

 

Minors Executions

In August 2021, Amnesty International had announced that the Iranian authorities had secretly executed a young man who was a child at the time of his arrest, after he had spent nearly a decade on death row. Sajjad Sanjari was hanged in Dieselabad prison in Kermanshah province at dawn on 2 August, but his family was not informed until a prison official asked them to collect his body later that day.

In August 2010, police arrested Sajjad Sanjari, then 15, for stabbing a man to death. Sajjad Sanjari said the man tried to rape him and claimed to have acted in self-defense, but in 2012 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

In a statement released on December 2020, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani stressed that: “The execution of the Iranian Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee was the fourth confirmed for a child offender this year and urged Iran to end the "appalling practice".

The statement noted that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet strongly condemned the execution and expressed dismay that: “It was carried out in spite of interventions and OHCHR engagement with the Government of Iran on the issue.”

Despite the condemnation and prohibition of the execution of children under international law, successive executions took place in Iran in 2021 also.

Yet, The Time quoted Kazem Gharib Abadi, secretary of the Supreme Council for Human Rights in Iran and one of Iran's former representatives to the United Nations, as saying recently that the implementation of the death penalty against minors is not illegal and does not contradict any of Iran's international obligations.

The Times clarified that Abadi made these statements last November in response to a statement issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in which he spoke of "deep flaws in the juvenile justice system in the Islamic Republic of Iran". After the execution of Arman Abdelali, who was convicted for murder when he was 17 years old, he was executed on November 24, 2021.

 

Horrific Violations

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javad Rahman, revealed grave violations committed by the Tehran government against opponents participating in protests against the regime. The violations include torture for the purpose of extracting confessions leading to execution and the killing of children under the age of 18, as well as the discrimination against minorities Ethnicity, and race in the country.

In his 29-page report, Rahman confirmed the execution of at least 233 people during 2020 in Iran, “after unfair trials, as well as some secret executions against protesters using systematic torture and coercion to extract confessions.”

The Special Rapporteur said that the Iranian government had not conducted an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into the use of excessive and lethal force during the nationwide demonstrations in November 2019, when security forces used firearms in a manner that amounted to a serious violation of international human rights law, which resulted in the death At least 304 individuals, including women and children. He stressed that impunity and lack of accountability for these actions are widespread in Iran.

The report stated that about 7,000 people were arrested, including minors, in connection with the protests. He pointed out that the victims' families were subjected to repeated arrests and interrogations that amounted to death threats in order to prevent them from claiming the rights of their relatives.

 

Discrimination Against Minorities

The UN report warned of continued discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, as reports indicate that political prisoners from ethnic minorities have been executed and forcibly disappeared. In May 2020, the authorities secretly executed Hedayat Abdullah Nur of the Kurdish minority, on charges of taking up arms against the state, after extracting confessions under torture. The UN Special Rapporteur also received reports that Ahwazi Arabs and Kurds are at risk of execution on national security charges.

According to the report, members of ethnic and religious minorities are imprisoned for practicing their culture, language, or belief, while concern is growing about forced evictions of residents in ethnic minority areas.

In August 2020, the authorities demolished 300 homes belonging to Ahwazi Arabs in Khuzestan province, confiscated land, and arrested about 130 people from the population.

The Iranian writer and commentator Dogan Sharfani disclosed the levels of persecution of minorities in Iran, noting that Jews and Christians are the least persecuted minority while the Sunni Muslims are completely marginalized from any role in the country. Moreover, their residence areas are neglected and they cannot disclose their opinion comfortably in public places.

He added: “Yet, the Baha’is are the most discriminated-against minority, with their places of worship being subjected to abuse, their cemeteries being vandalized, and their chief preachers being imprisoned and punished with long prison years because of their beliefs.”