Friday, November 23, 2007

URGENT CALL: 15 year old Afghan boy facing imminent execution

Iran's superior court approved the execution order a 15 year old Afghan boy who strangled an 8 year old boy. Ali Amiri is a citizen of Afghanistan and has confessed to murder of the 8 year Afghan old boy named Janahmad because of swearing at him. Ali was 13 at the time of murder. The four judges of the 74th division of the Tehran's penal court were: Koohkamari, Tardast, Rahimi, Abdollahi and Bagheri.  The death sentence verdict was later approved by Iran's superior court. Ali Amiri faces imminent execution if head of Iran's judiciary signs the verdict. Many children under the age of 18 have already been executed in Iran.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Contact your local Embassy of Afghanistan asking them to object to Iran's sentencing of an Afghan child to death in violation of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Also contact your local Iran Embassy and following leaders. Using your own words, please choose a few of the suggestions below to create a personal appeal :

- expressing concern that Ali Amiri is at risk of execution for a crime committed when he was under 18;
- calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately halt the execution of Ali Amiri;
- calling for the death sentence against Ali Amiri to be commuted;
- reminding the authorities that Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18, and that the execution of Ali Amiri would therefore be a violation of international law;
- urging the authorities to pass legislation to abolish the death penalty for offences committed by anyone under the age of 18, so as to bring Iran's domestic law into line with its obligations under international law;
- stating that you acknowledges the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but unconditionally opposes child executions.

APPEALS TO:

Leader of the Islamic Republic:
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:             info@leader.ir
Salutation:      Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary:
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building
Panzdah-Khordad Square
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:  <mailto:info@dadgostary-tehran.ir> info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
(In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation:       Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

Speaker of Parliament:
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami
Baharestan Square
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email:             hadadadel@majlis.ir
Salutation:      Your Excellency


For more actions visit: http://www.stopchildexecutions.com/how-you-can-help.aspx.

Posted by StopChildExecutions.com at 07:08:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |
Comments
1 - Girls considered adults at 9 nine) years old.
I was outraged when I read that this was considered the way of Islam. Boys are adult at 15, while girls at only 9. HOW, I wondered, could this be true?
I have discovered what I now believe is the reason behind this. The Prophet Muhammad married a little girl, aged only 6 (six) years old. He "waited" until she was NINE years old to consumate the marriage. In normal society, any man who has relations with such a young girl would be called a pedophile. BUT, you can't call the Prophet THAT, so, instead, you say that little girls are really adults at 9 years old. Thereby everything is OK! That is why it is legal to give the death penalty to girls as young as 10 (TEN) as in Nafiseh Jahani's case (and many more from aged 10 up), and the government "accidentally" executes so many males at 16 (it's 15 for boys to be adults). The government isn't confused - they just WON'T follow CRC and ICCPR! NOW I UNDERSTAND. BUT, this doesn't make it RIGHT! (Comment this)

Written by: StarWish624 at 2007/11/24 - 15:50:09
2 - It is difficult for us to understand the world as it existed thousands of years ago. It was common in nearly every nation, including those within the Jewish population, for females to marry at an age we would today consider a child. In fact, even a few hundred years ago in the United States females were commonly marrying as young as 13 years of age.

The world has changed much since the time of Moses or Mohammad which is the reason we cannot incorporate wholesale their cultures and values into the 21st Century. We need to translate them into our own society.

It is understandable that women would marry young thousands of years ago. It was an extremely violent time in a world with primitive governments. A woman alone in the desert or in open territory, had a minimal chance for survival. A prominent man with a large nuclear family around him could provide protection. And because men tended to marry much younger women through arranged marriages, and often had multiple wives, the liklihood was great that the father would die long before the child reached the age of adulthood. Thus, her parents would provide a dowry to the man who would marry and protect their daughter often at a very young age.

We can't really understand the way things were thousands of years ago in the extremely rough environment where the average life expectancy was often only about the age of thirty years. For that reason, I try not to condemn our ancient ancestors for such cultural matters as polygamy, marriage to minors and other matters that make little sense to us today.

This also underscores the reason we can't take a legal systen such as Shariah law and incorporate it wholesale into our modern society the way the IRI has done, particularly since Shariah law is often directly inconsistent with the teachings of Mohammad. (Comment this)

Written by: DW Duke at 2007/11/25 - 11:31:35
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