Iran: Juvenile Offender in Imminent Danger of Execution

According to a close source, Mehdi Khazaeian, who is charged for a murder allegedly committed at the age of 16, is currently at the Correction and Rehabilitation Center of Gorgan scheduled to be executed.

Based on his identity documents, Mehdi was born on November 20, 1999. The alleged murder took place when he was 16 years old, in Gorgan on March 13, 2016. The relatives of the juvenile offender stated that he was in a gang fight leading to the murder of Amir Hossein B., 19, and it is not clear who delivered the fatal blow.

The verdict, a copy of which was received by IHR, mentions, “The forensic report indicates that “currently there’s no sign of mental disorder in the defendant and considering his statements about the incident and his total awareness of the situation, it seems that he was in a good mental health and wasn’t under the influence of alcohol and was mentally mature as of March 14, 2016 “

Eventually, Mehdi Khazaeian was sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking of alcohol, three years in prison for participation in a gang fight, and qisas (retribution) death penalty for murder. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Based on Article 91 of the new Islamic Penal Code, approved in 2013, judges can potentially deny issuing a death sentence for juveniles who do not understand the nature of their crime.

It is worth mentioning that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has signed, clearly bans execution and life imprisonment of juveniles. 

In 2017, at least five juvenile offenders were executed in Iran. Furthermore, at least three juvenile offenders were executed in January 2018 in Iran.

It’s worth mentioning that currently a sum of money is being collected in order to win the consent of the plaintiffs. Since the juvenile offender couldn’t choose a lawyer during his arrest and the proceeding of his case, Iran Human Rights invites human rights lawyers who are willing to voluntarily handle the cases of juvenile offenders to help this death-row prisoner.