UN Urges Iran Not to Execute Man Convicted While a Juvenile

FILE - A police cameraman takes video footage of the hanging of a convicted murderer at Jamshidieh park in Tehran, Oct. 27, 2002.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging Iran to stop the execution of a man who was a juvenile when sentenced in 2012. Sajad Sanjari was 15 years old when an Iranian court sentenced him to death for fatally stabbing a man. In 2014, he was granted a retrial under a new Islamic Penal Code, but the following year, a provincial criminal court rejected his argument that he acted in self-defense against a would-be rapist. The court confirmed the death sentence, saying Sanjari was mature enough to understand the nature of his crime. This ruling was upheld by Iran's Supreme Court last year.
A spokesman for the human rights office, Rupert Colville, says Iran is one of a few countries that still executes juvenile offenders. He says the use of capital punishment on anyone under the age of 18 is a violation of international human rights law. "At least five juveniles were reportedly executed in Iran last year,” Colville said, “and at least 78 people reportedly remain on death row for crimes they committed when they were under 18, although the actual figure may be much higher than that. " The number of executions in Iran is difficult to pin down, Colville tells VOA, because of the opaque system of government. "According to various NGO [non-governmental organization] sources, the number of people executed in 2016, last year, was over 500 — 530 according to some,” Colville said. “The vast majority is said to be for drug offenses."

Under international law, the death penalty may be imposed only for the most serious crimes — those involving intentional killing. Human rights experts say drug-related offenses do not meet that bar. The United Nations is calling for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in Iran because of the high number of executions and concerns that defendants do not receive fair trials. Iran As a party to the ICCPR & is legally obliged 2 forbid torture & other cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Maryam Rajavi President-elect of NCRI urges referral of the clerical regime's dossier of crimes to the UN Security Council The religious fascism ruling Iran has kicked off the New Year with merciless executions en mass. The execution of at least 57 prisoners, mostly youths, has been registered in Iran since the beginning of 2017. Twenty of the victims were hanged on Saturday, January 14, 2017, in Gohardasht Prison, the Central Prison of Karaj, the Lakan Prison of Rasht, and the Dizelabad Prison of Kermanshah.

Iran's Middle East ambitions more dangerous than nuclesar threat

Iran, chasing a strategic objective of safeguarding its very existence, sees its interests in hindering any efforts to reach a lasting peace, while canvassing its role as an effective party in the war against ISIS.
It is worth noting that hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians seeking life under a free state are paying the price of Khamenei’s ruthless dictatorship. Iran’s meddling in the region and provoking sectarianism have rendered increasing fundamentalism and the rise of Daesh and al-Qaeda. Parallel to appeasing Iran to maintain the mullahs at the negotiating table, silence and inaction seen from the West in the Middle East, especially by the Obama administration, have further intensified the Levant inferno and complicated regional conditions, especially Syria. To this end, Iran has been the main benefactor as a result. The status quo further proves a warning issued by Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). “Four years ago I warned the threat of the mullahs’ meddling in Iraq is 100 times more dangerous than its nuclear ambitions,” Rajavi said in a speech on June 30, 2007 in Paris. Although Iran failed to obtain nuclear weapons thanks to continuous NCRI revelations, Tehran’s destructive meddling and crimes carried out by affiliated Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria and abroad are far more dangerous. This campaign has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region, leveled cities and displaced millions.
Tehran’s interventions in the Middle East have brought any and all efforts to establish peace, stability, and security to a complete halt. Of course, this is not due to Tehran’s strength and capabilities. In fact, it is all the byproduct of inaction, silence, and policy of appeasement adopted by the West vis-à-vis Iran, and 16 years of strategic mistakes by Washington in this flashpoint region of the globe.

Maryam Rajavi addresses the French National Assembly: Middle East Developments, French and European Approaches

Occupying Iraq and delivering the country in a silver plate to Iran, parallel to disarming the leading organized opposition entity, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were all gifts provided by the West and U.S. to the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Without a doubt any involvement of Iran in the war against Daesh will only register as an aberration in establishing regional peace and security, forcing the international community to pinpoint resources on derivatives of Iran’s terrorism crusade.

Solution
Of course, true and lasting Middle East peace and security are only possible through regime change in Iran and the establishment of a democratic and secular government in Tehran. This is the objective set by the Iranian opposition under Mrs. Rajavi’s leadership. Her 10-point-plan for the future Iran, enjoys the support of thousands of MPs, political, religious, legal and civil dignitaries across the globe. Abi-partisan letter signed by 23 former top officeholders in the past five administrations to the president-elect urges the incoming Trump administration "to establish a dialogue with Iran's exiled resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)," which has called for free elections to establish a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic in Iran as well as an end to what it calls Tehran's "religious dictatorship." Middle East stability can only be achieved in bringing an end to Iran’s meddling in Syria and across the region. With Iran evicted from the Middle East all forms of fundamentalism, including Daesh, will have no reason to exist. And naturally, the West will be relieved of the current wave of lethal terrorist attacks.

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