Analysis by PMOI/MEK
April 30, 2019 – Amnesty International announced on Monday that authorities have secretly executed two boys under the age of 18 after they were flogged.
The execution of juveniles is considered an utter disdain for International law and the rights of children according to the Amnesty.
The statement says Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, two cousins, were executed on 25 April in Adelabad prison of Shiraz, Fars province, southern Iran, following an unfair trial. Both were arrested at the age of 15.
Amnesty has learned that Iranian regime authorities flogged the two boys in the final moments of their lives and then carried out their executions in secret.
Amnesty says information concerning these executions reveal that the teenagers were unaware they had been sentenced to death until shortly before their executions and bore lash marks on their bodies, indicating that they had been flogged before their deaths. Their families and lawyers were not informed about the executions in advance and were shocked to learn of the news.
“The Iranian authorities have once again proved that they are sickeningly prepared to put children to death, in flagrant disregard of international law. It seems they cruelly kept these two boys in the dark about their death sentences for two years, flogged them in the final moments of their lives and then carried out their executions in secret,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
“The use of the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time of the crime is strictly prohibited under international human rights law and is a flagrant assault on children’s rights…”
Amnesty International says the mullahs’ regime in Iran remains the world’s leading executioner of juveniles and is constantly condemned for its human rights violations. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obliged to treat anyone under the age of 18 as a juvenile and ensure that they are never subjected to the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat had been held in a juvenile correction center in Shiraz since 2017. On 24 April, they were transferred to Adelabad prison, apparently without knowing the reason. The same day, their families were granted a visit with them, but they were not told that it was in preparation for their execution.
The next day, on 25 April, the families suddenly received a call from Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization, a state forensic institute, informing them of the executions and asking them to collect the bodies.
The legal proceedings leading to the two boys’ conviction and sentence were unfair and flagrantly violated the principles of juvenile justice. Following their arrests, they were held for two months in a police detention center, where they said they were beaten. They also had no access to a lawyer during the investigation process, according to AI.
Amnesty states that the practice of subjecting children to police questioning in the absence of a guardian or lawyer violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
