Iran: Juvenile Offender Execution after Ramadan
Published by Ali on June 3, 2019
Juvenile offender Danial Zeinulabedin, who has been sentenced to death while under the age of 18, is at risk of execution.
Reports indicate that his execution will be carried out soon after Ramadan.
On Tuesday, 28 May, Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) reported that one of the close relatives of Danial Zeinulabedin has said that his family was told he will be executed after Ramadan.
The source told IHR: “Due to psychological pressure, Danial suffers from severe mental health problems and lost control, so that he has injured his entire body.”
Danial Zeinolabedini is a juvenile offender whose death sentence has been upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court. Danial was born on 9 August, 2000. He allegedly committed murder on 22 September, 2017, when he was 17 years old. According to his relatives, he did not commit the murder and is innocent.
Danial was along with three others charged with murdering a man identified as Sadegh Barmaki.
Iran is one of only five countries known that execute child offenders.
Iran’s penal code, as amended in 2013, prohibits executing child offenders for certain categories of crimes, including drug-related offenses. For other serious crimes, article 91 of the amended penal code allows judges to use their discretion and not issue a death sentence against a child who was not able to comprehend the nature and consequences of the crime at the time.
The amended law also allows the courts to rely on “the opinion of a forensic doctor or other means it deems appropriate” to establish whether a defendant understood the consequences of their actions.
However, Iranian courts have continued to sentence children to death after these amendments became law. In 2018 alone, Iran executed seven people for crimes they allegedly committed as children.
