Iranian juvenile offender Amirhossein Pourjafar, along with two other inmates were transferred to solitary confinement on January 2, 2018, in preparation for their executions in Rajaei Shahr Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran. There is no news available on the identity of the two others but they are all convicted of murder.
Amirhossein Pourjafar, was arrested in 2016, for a crime committed while he was 17 years old. He was scheduled to be hanged on 19 October 2017, but his execution was postponed at the last minutes.
Amnesty International on October 13, 2017, urged the Iranian authorities to halt his execution and said: “The Iranian authorities must urgently stop the execution of a 17-year-old boy who was convicted of murder and rape, and commute his death sentence to imprisonment.” AI further added: “Amnesty International supports the demands for justice voiced by Setayesh’s bereaved family and the wider Afghan community in Iran, but executing a 17-year-old boy is not justice.”
Amirhossein Pourjafar was sentenced to two death sentences In September 2016, by the Branch 7 of Tehran’s Criminal Court No 1, one for murder in accordance with the Islamic principle of “retribution-in-kind” (qesas) and another for rape. He was also sentenced to 74 lashes for mutilating the corpse. The Supreme Court upheld both death sentences in January 2017.
In 2013, the Iranian regime amended its Islamic Penal Code, offering the possibility of retrials for juveniles sentenced to death. Later, Iran gave assurances in 2016 to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that this amendment would apply systematically for all juveniles who are currently on death row. However, in 2017, Iran repeatedly violated its commitment by hanging of at least four people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrests.
