A squalid shameful act

The Iranian government stands accused this week of a shameful, squalid - and cynical- execution of a young woman, Delara Darabi, who was convicted of murdering a relative when she was just 17. She initially confessed to the crime, hoping to save her boyfriend, and then retracted her confession. She had been in prison since 2003.

Amnesty International took up her case in 2006 when the facts of her trial came to light and which Amnesty does not consider to have been fair, her lawyer being denied the right to present evidence which, it is claimed, would have proved she could not have committed the murder.



Iran has ignored the international agreement to ban capital punishment for those who committed crimes as juveniles but , only on 19th April Delara Darabi was given a 2 month stay of execution while international appeals were considered. Despite this, on May 1st, with no notice to her lawyer or her family, Delara Darabi was taken out of her cell and hanged in the compound of Rasht Prison. The speed and secrecy was, of course, to avoid international protests until it was too late.

140 people have been executed in Iran this year, including another woman and one other who committed the offence while under the age of 18. Two more juvenile offenders are scheduled to die this week.

Amnesty International is launching world wide protests in front of Iranian emabassies and if any readers of this blog would care to add their protests in the form of a letter to the Iranian embassy in your location, to stop capital punishment particularly of child offenders, you will have my gratitude.