17 November 2019 :

Two minors, Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, were executed on 25 April in Adel Abad prison. The Iranian authorities have flogged and secretly executed two boys under the age of 18, Amnesty International has learned. Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, two cousins, were executed on 25 April in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz, Fars province, southern Iran. Both were arrested aged 15 and convicted on multiple rape charges following an unfair trial. According to information received by Amnesty International, the teenagers were unaware that they had been sentenced to death until shortly before their executions and bore lash marks on their bodies, indicating that they had been flogged before their deaths. Their families and lawyers were not informed about the executions in advance. Iran remains the top executioner of children in the world. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obliged to treat anyone under the age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subjected to the death penalty or life imprisonment. Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat had been held in a juvenile correction centre in Shiraz since 2017. On 24 April, they were transferred to Adelabad prison, apparently without knowing the reason. The same day, their families were granted a visit with them, but they were not told that it was in preparation for their execution. The next day, on 25 April, the families suddenly received a call from Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization, a state forensic institute, informing them of the executions and asking them to collect the bodies. The legal proceedings leading to the two boys’ conviction and sentence were unfair and flagrantly violated the principles of juvenile justice. Following their arrest, they were held for two months in a police detention center, where they said they were beaten. They also had no access to a lawyer during the investigation stage. The practice of subjecting children to police questioning in the absence of a guardian or lawyer violates the Convention on the Rights of the two minors, Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, Child, which provides that children in conflict with the law must be guaranteed prompt legal assistance.