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April 16, 2009

Iranian woman fearful of execution for crime committed as juvenile

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Washington DC – Delara Darabi, 22, who has been detained in Rasht Prison since 2003 after being sentenced to death for a crime she committed at the age of 17, is “at imminent risk of being executed,” according to her lawyer and Amnesty International.  Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Darabi’s attorney, says that Darabi told him during a March 21 phone call that she had heard rumors inside the prison that she would be executed.

Amnesty International is appealing to the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, seeking the commutation of the death sentence, which goes against Iran’s international obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The two conventions prohibit the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.  Amnesty is also seeking a retrial that meets international standards for a fair trial.

Amnesty International estimates that Iran today carries out the highest number of juvenile executions in the world, and is the only country known to have executed a juvenile offender in 2008.

 

 

 

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