Laureate Condemns
Hanging of Iranian Boys
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, July 23, 2005
TEHRAN, Iran -- Nobel Peace
laureate Shirin Ebadi on Saturday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused
of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted
protests by the international community and rights groups.
Last week's hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement
in homosexual acts violated Iran's obligations under the International
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said.
Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its
fight against Iran's executions of minors.
''My calls for a law clearly banning execution of under-18s has fallen on deaf
ears so far but I will not give up the fight,'' Ebadi told The Associated Press.
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the
city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys. They said before their
executions that they were not aware that homosexual acts were punishable by
death.
Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His lawyer, Rohollah
Razaz Zadeh, said Iranian courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed
to children to five years in jail.
''The judiciary has trampled its own laws,'' Razaz Zadeh told the AP.
But the lawyer said Iran's Supreme Court upheld the verdict and allowed the
execution despite his objections.
Gay rights groups, such as the London-based Outrage!, and Iranian opposition
groups suggested the rape allegations were trumped-up charges aimed to undermine
public sympathy for the teenagers.
In Sweden, Foreign Ministry spokesman Per Saland said the government was
''looking very seriously'' at the hangings.
''We are against the death penalty and we particularly react when it comes to
the execution of minors, pregnant women and the mentally disabled,'' Saland
said.
The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Rights posted a photo on
its Web site showing hooded executioners tightening ropes around the suspects'
necks.
The group's chairman, Soren Andersson, called on Sweden's government not to
deport gay and lesbian asylum seekers back to Iran.
''Sweden has turned gay and lesbian refugees back to Iran and they should know
that these people could be killed,'' he said.
Being gay or lesbian should be enough for refugees to remain in Sweden and not
be returned to Iran, he added.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has campaigned to protect the
rights of children and improve human rights in Iran but has met stiff resistance
from the judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners.
The Iranian government last year refused to give Ebadi permission to stage a
rally to protest children's executions.
Under Iranian law, girls older than 9 and boys older than 15 face execution if
they commit crimes such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions,
capital punishment is imposed for those engaging in illegal sexual relations.
In 2003, a 16-year-old girl said to be suffering from a psychological disorder
was executed in Neka, a town in northern Iran, on charges of having an illegal
sexual relationship.
While there are no official figures on death sentences given to minors, human
rights activists say about a dozen were executed in Iran last year.
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