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IRAN: JUVENILE OFFENDER SAMAN NASEEM WAS EXECUTED
February 20, 2015: The Kurdish political prisoner Saman Naseem who was sentenced to death for offences he allegedly committed at 17 years of age, was executed in the prison of Urmia (Northwest of Iran). Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported earlier that Saman’s family were contacted by the authorities yesterday to meet at the prison to collect Saman’s belongings on Saturday.
According to several independent sources, Saman’s family have been asked earlier today to collect Saman’s body tomorrow, Saturday 21. It is still unclear whether Saman was executed yesterday (Thursday 19) or today.
Saman Naseem was transferred together with five death row prisoners of conscience from his prison ward to an unknown location on February Wednesday 18. There is no information about the other five death row political prisoners: Yunes Aghayan, Habibollah Afshari, Ali Afshari, Sirwan Najavi and Ebrahim Shapouri. There is increasing concern that also these prisoners may be executed soon.
Despite ratifying the United Nations’ Convention for the Rights of the Child, Iran is the world’s biggest executioner of juvenile offenders.
Saman Naseem was sentenced to death in April 2013 by a criminal court in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, for “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth” (ifsad fil-arz) because of his membership in the Kurdish armed opposition group PJAK, and for taking part in armed activities against the Revolutionary Guards. His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in December 2013. Has was 17 year old at the time of his arrest. (Sources: Iran Human Rights, 20/02/2015)
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