UNHCR Urges Iran to Avoid Executing Kurdish Juvenile

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Iran executed

“He was a juvenile when he was sentenced to death”

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) urged Iran to cancel the capital punishment against a Kurdish juvenile offender.

“We call on the Iranian authorities not to carry out the apparently imminent execution of Sajad Sanjari, who was a juvenile when he was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a man in 2012,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for UNHCHR on Tuesday.

Sanjari was granted a retrial in 2014 and in 2015 the provincial criminal court of Kermanshah rejected his argument that he had acted in self-defense following a rape attempt on him. The court finally confirmed his death sentence.

UNHCR spokesperson stated that “Iran remains one of the few countries that execute juvenile offenders despite its obligations under the international human rights law which prohibits the use of the death penalty against anyone under 18 years of age, no matter the circumstances or the crime.”

“At least five juveniles were reportedly executed in Iran last year 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,” he said.

UNHCR reiterated its call to Iran “to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty,” expressing its concern over the high rate of executions and the lack of a fair trial.

According to Mirovayeti website for human rights, at least 17 Kurdish inmates are on the death row in prisons in Iran.

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