Stop child executions: Delara Darabi

Update 6 May 2009:Thank you to those who took action to try to prevent Delara Darabi's execution. We laid flowers outside the Iranian Embassy in London on Wednesday 6 May. to remember Delara Darabi and call on the Iranian authorities to stop child executions.

Update 1 May 2009 The terrible news came through this morning that Delara Darabi was hanged in Rasht Central Prison earlier today.

Amnesty International is outraged at the execution, which took place despite Ms Darabi having been given a two-month stay of execution by the Head of the Judiciary on 19 April and without her lawyer being informed. This appears to have been a cynical move on the part of the authorities to avoid domestic and international protests which might have saved Delara Darabi's life.

• Read Amnesty's reaction to the execution

Action information

Delara Darabi was executed for a murder which took place when she was 17 years old.

Even though Iran has signed up to international treaties that prohibit the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by those under the age of 18, eight juvenile offenders were executed in 2008 and one on 21 January 2009.

UPDATE: 17 APRIL 2009
According to the Iranian newspaper Etema, Delara Darabi was scheduled to be executed on 18 April. Another source put the date at 20 April.

Amnesty demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy on Monday, 20 April at 9am about the scheduled execution.

UPDATE: 9 APRIL 2009
Delara Darabi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, feared that his client was now at imminent risk of execution. He received a telephone call from Delara Darabi on 21 March in which she said that she had heard rumours in prison that she would be executed.

Normal legal avenues in her case were exhausted, though domestic and international concerns about her situation appeared to have resulted in repeated and slow-moving legal reviews.

Delara Darabi’s case

According to reports in the Persian language news service Aftab, Delara Darabi and a 19-year-old man named Amir Hossein broke into a woman’s house to commit a burglary. Amir Hossein allegedly killed the woman during the burglary. Delara Darabi initially confessed to the murder but has since retracted her confession. She claims that Amir Hossein asked her to admit responsibility for the murder to protect him from execution, believing that , because she was under 18, she could not be sentenced to death.

Delara Derabi maintains her innocence, and has claimed that she was under the influence of sedatives during the burglary.

Amir Hossein has reportedly received a prison sentence of 10 years for his involvement in the crime.

Following the handing down of an initial sentence of death, the Supreme Court found “deficiencies” in her case and sent it for retrial. However, following two trial sessions in January and June 2006, Delara Darabi was sentenced to death for a second time by Branch 107 of the General Court in Rasht.  In January 2007, her lawyer said that her case was under consideration by Branch 33 of the Supreme Court.

Iran has executed at least 42 juvenile offenders since 1990, eight of them in 2008 and one on 21 January 2009.

The execution of juvenile offenders is prohibited under international law, as stated in Article 6(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Iran is a state party. It has therefore undertaken not to execute anyone for crimes committed when they were under 18.

In Iran a person convicted of murder has no right to seek pardon or commutation from the state, in violation of Article 6(4) of the ICCPR. The family of a murder victim have the right either to insist on execution, or to pardon the killer and receive financial compensation (diyeh).

• Find out more about our campaign to stop child executions
• Find out more about the death penalty
• Visit the 'Help Delara' myspace page, myspace.com/helpdelara
• View Delara's artwork on Flickr.com

Update 6 May 2009:Thank you to those who took action to try to prevent Delara Darabi's execution. We laid flowers outside the Iranian Embassy in London on Wednesday 6 May. to remember Delara Darabi and call on the Iranian authorities to stop child executions.

Update 1 May 2009 The terrible news came through this morning that Delara Darabi was hanged in Rasht Central Prison earlier today.

Amnesty International is outraged at the execution, which took place despite Ms Darabi having been given a two-month stay of execution by the Head of the Judiciary on 19 April and without her lawyer being informed. This appears to have been a cynical move on the part of the authorities to avoid domestic and international protests which might have saved Delara Darabi's life.

• Read Amnesty's reaction to the execution

Action information

Delara Darabi was executed for a murder which took place when she was 17 years old.

Even though Iran has signed up to international treaties that prohibit the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by those under the age of 18, eight juvenile offenders were executed in 2008 and one on 21 January 2009.

UPDATE: 17 APRIL 2009
According to the Iranian newspaper Etema, Delara Darabi was scheduled to be executed on 18 April. Another source put the date at 20 April.

Amnesty demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy on Monday, 20 April at 9am about the scheduled execution.

UPDATE: 9 APRIL 2009
Delara Darabi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, feared that his client was now at imminent risk of execution. He received a telephone call from Delara Darabi on 21 March in which she said that she had heard rumours in prison that she would be executed.

Normal legal avenues in her case were exhausted, though domestic and international concerns about her situation appeared to have resulted in repeated and slow-moving legal reviews.

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