Iran: Juvenile Offender Sentenced to Death
محکومیت یک کودک-مجرم به اعدام
NOVEMBER 2,
2018
Iran Human Rights (IHR); November 1,
2018: A juvenile offender was sentenced to death on a murder charge.
According to the Iranian
newspaper, Javan,
a prisoner was sentenced to qisas (retribution in kind) on a murder charge. The
newspaper published the prisoner’s first name as Pouyan and emphasized that he
killed a person during a fight at the age of 17. Branch 7 of Tehran’s Criminal
Court issued the verdict; however, the paper did not reveal any information
about the date of the hearing and issuance of the verdict.
It seems the court did not send the
juvenile offender to the forensics to estimate his full mental development. The
mental development estimation is possible under Article 91 of the Islamic Penal
Code and can potentially save a juvenile offenders life.
According to Article 91 of Iran's
revised Islamic Penal Code, it is up to the presiding judge's discretion to
deem the juvenile mature enough to understand the nature of the offense:
"In the cases of offenses punishable by hadd or qisas, if mature
people under eighteen years do not realize the nature of the crime committed or
its prohibition, or if there is uncertainty about their full mental
development, according to their age, they shall be sentenced to the punishments
prescribed in this chapter."
Otherwise, the Islamic Penal Code puts
the age of criminal responsibility for males at 15 and 9 for females.