The United Nations on Tuesday deplored the execution of two younger males, aged 17 and 22, in Iran and referred to as on the Iranian authorities to instantly finish the appliance of the dying penalty.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights stated it was troubled by Friday’s execution. “The execution of accused assassin Hamidreza Azari is the primary reported execution of a juvenile offender in Iran this yr,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell stated in a press release.
She reminded Tehran of its obligations beneath worldwide treaties to ban the dying penalty and its execution for crimes dedicated by people beneath the age of 18.
“We are additionally saddened by the execution on the identical day of Milad Zolevand, 22, the eighth individual to be executed in reference to the September 2022 protests,” Trossell stated.
“Available info means that his trial didn’t meet fundamental necessities for due course of beneath worldwide human rights regulation. There are additionally disturbing studies that Zolevand’s mother and father had been arrested following his execution.”
“We deplore the execution.”
The September 2022 protests had been sparked by the dying in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady, after she was arrested in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict feminine costume code.
Iran launched a sweeping crackdown to quell the protests, leading to a whole lot of deaths and hundreds of arrests, in line with human rights teams.
Trossell stated Iran has one of many highest numbers of dying sentences, notably for drug-related offences, and that ethnic minorities obtain a disproportionate variety of dying sentences.
She referred to as on Iran to instantly cease the appliance of the dying penalty and impose a moratorium on executions.
Until then, Trossell stated, the dying penalty could solely be imposed for probably the most severe crimes – people who deliberately and immediately lead to dying.
“We additionally name on the federal government to cease utilizing legal proceedings to punish political activists and others who train their rights to freedom of speech and peaceable meeting,” she added.
At least 582 folks had been executed in Iran final yr, the very best quantity since 2015 and considerably larger than the 333 executed in all of 2021, the IHR and Paris-based group Anti-Death Penalty stated in a joint report launched in April.