TEHRAN: Iran faced international condemnation as it executed 17-year-old Hamidreza Azari for a murder conviction, raising concerns about the country’s continued practice of hanging individuals for crimes committed while they were minors. Azari was executed on Friday in the prison in Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan province.
Rights groups, including Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR), revealed that Azari was 16 years old at the time of the crime and 17 at the time of execution. He had been sentenced to death for his involvement in a fatal brawl in May. The execution has been cited as a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines a child as anyone under 18.
Concern Over Child Execution in Iran
Iran International, a Persian-language satellite TV channel, also reported the execution, highlighting that Azari was the only child in his family and had been working as a scrap worker for a few years.
IHR emphasized Iran’s alarming record of sentencing and executing individuals who were minors at the time of their crimes. Since 2010, at least 68 minors have been executed in Iran, making it one of the few countries to carry out such practices.
Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam, the director of IHR, criticized the inconsistency in Iran’s legal framework, noting that while the country considers 18 as the age for obtaining a driver’s license, it deems 15 as the age of criminal responsibility for boys.
