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17-year-old Hamidreza Azari was hanged in Iran after being charged with murder. The execution occurred on Friday, November 24, within the confines of Sabzevar prison in the Khorasan-e Razavi province.
The execution was also reported by Iran International, a Persian-language satellite TV program. The channel claimed that Azari was reportedly executed because he killed someone when he was 16 years old.
Contrary to international standards, which safeguard the rights of individuals under the age of 18, Azari's execution underscored a blatant violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention explicitly categorizes individuals younger than 18 as children, emphasizing the severity of executing juveniles.
Hamidreza Azari is a teenager who was recently executed
Azari, the sole child in his family, had been employed as a scrap worker from a young age. Born on August 1, 2006, he faced accusations of committing murder on April 28, 2023, when he was 16 years and 8 months old. The rights organizations disclosed that Azari was given the death penalty for fatally injuring a man during a fight in May 2023.
Citing documents they had seen, Hengaw and IHR both claimed that,
“he was 16 years old at the time of the crime and 17 years old when he was put to death”.
As per sources like Arab News, in a “deliberate attempt to evade accountability for violating international laws" Iranian media incorrectly claimed that Hamidreza was 18 years old when he was initially put to death.
This lie fits in with the broader criticism of Iran's policy of executions, which includes applying the death penalty to those who were minors when they are accused of crimes.
In addition, as per the Iran Human Rights official site, the IHR has reported that since 2010, at least 68 juveniles have been executed in Iran, and at least 684 people have been executed this year. The organization claimed that:
"Iran is one of the few countries that sentences child-convicts to death and executes more juveniles than all other countries”.
Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam, the director of IHR, further stated:
"In Iran, if someone wants to get a driver's license, they must be 18 years old, but 15 years old is enough to be executed".
The case of Milad Zohrevand, 21, executed in November 2023 as the eighth casualty linked to the 2022 protests, underscores Iran's persistent human rights issues.
In a separate incident in September 2022, the arrest of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian, for opposing the mandatory hijab dress code for women sparked nationwide protests, revealing a deep-seated discontent with Iran's oppressive policies.
