Iran's Death Penalty in Numbers

Death Penalty in Iran and Numbers

• We are concerned about the methods of execution used in Iran.

• In contravention of its obligations according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran continues to put minors under 18 years of age on death row.

12

16

Alireza Molasoltani

10 to 12 minutes of painful death for the condemned prisoner in suspension strangulation

People as young as 16 are executed

in Iran

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has voluntarily signed up to, the age of full criminal responsibility is 18. Despite this fact, even those charged with committing crimes attracting death penalty before the age of 18 are put on death row in Iran.

The new Islamic Penal Code is claimed to have removed the death penalty for minors under 18, however, article 141-1 apparently excludes Hoduds (punishment believed to have been set by God) and leaves it to the discretion of the judge to decide whether to put minors (between 14 years 7 months and 18 years for boys, and 8 years 8 months and 18 for girls) on death row.

17 years old at the time of his execution in 2011

Charged with murder

He was executed only 66 days after his arrest

• Execution by hanging is the most common method of implementation. However, lack of detailed legal instructions and improvisations result in suspension strangulation in several cases.

• Stoning, execution by firing squad, and throwing down a mountain were other means of execution used in Iran recently.

Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh

16 years old at the time of her execution in 2004

Charged with "acts incompatible with chastity"

She was hanged less than three months after her arrest

Mona Mahmoudnezhad

600

17 years old at the time of her execution

in 1983

Being a Baha'i, Mona was charged with "Zionism" and "misleading children" (she was working at a Baha'i nursery school).

at least 600 people were executed in Iran in 2011.

15

66

• We are worried about the number and nature of crimes that attract death penalty in Iran.

• Manslaughter; although manslaughter does not attract the death penalty in Iranian law, murder is so loosely defined that encompasses certain crimes that normally would be considered manslaughter.

• According to Iranian laws, wherever the civil and penal codes of law are "silent", the judge can rule based on Sharia law; that results in several other crimes being punishable with death, including apostasy.

• Drug trafficking is by far the most common charge for which people are put on death row in Iran, followed by murder, rape, and the vaguely defined charge of "enmity with God".

Apart from brief tribunals and hasty executions which undermines the accuracy and fairness of the trial, there are several other common examples in Iranian legal procedure which raise concerns about the fairness of such trials and access to justice for those who face capital punishment. These include:

• instances where lawyers have faced intimidation, persecution, threats, and even imprisonment themselves.
• charges against defendants which are ambiguous, or have changed during the course of the trial.
• cases where foreign citizens, especially from Afghanistan and some African countries, have been executed without notifying their families, respective embassies, or legal representatives.

At least 15 crimes are punishable with the death penalty in Iran

66 days from being arrested to

the gallows

30

In the first six months of

2012, 30 public

executions were

carried out

in Iran