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Iran: A young woman faces gallows after eighteen years in prison

NCRI – A young woman, Soghra Najafpoor, accused of killing an eight-year-old boy spent eighteen years behind bars. She was thirteen at the time of alleged crime but the mullahs’ judiciary insists on carrying on the hanging soon, the state-run daily Etemaad reported on October 2.

As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Iranian regime has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18, however, a famous case in recent past was Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh executed on August 15, 2004. The 16-year-old schoolgirl was executed after being sentenced to death by a mullah named Haji Rezai in the northern town of Neka.

NCRI’s Women’s Committee Chair Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz said, "The mullahs’ regime is a signatory of both ICCPR and CRC.  However, according to reports by international human rights organizations, more than 71 juveniles are presently on death row in Iran."
 
She added, "The growing number of executions, under the clerical rule in Iran, is appalling. In past 11 months, the hangings have doubled the total number of executions reported last year in Iran."
 
She called on all international human rights organizations, women’s and children’s rights groups as well as the current session of the UN General Assembly to condemn the brutal violation of human rights by the regime and to adopt urgent measures to save Soghra Najafpoor.
 
Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 29, 2007