UN experts said on Thursday they were dismayed by a decision in Iran to proceed with the execution of Hossein Shahbazi, who was convicted of fatally stabbing a classmate in a mass brawl when he was 17.
Javaid Rehman, an expert on Iran, and other UN investigators, urged Tehran to halt the execution of Shahbazi, now aged 20.
International law “unequivocally forbids the imposition of the death penalty on persons below 18 years of age”, the experts said, but Iran currently has at least 85 juvenile offenders on death row.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to immediately and permanently halt the execution of Hossein Shahbazi and annul his death sentence, in line with international human rights law,” the experts said in a statement.
Shahbazi, who was convicted and sentenced to death in January 2020, is currently being held in Adelabad prison in Shiraz.
His conviction was based in part on confessions that he said he made after being tortured and subjected to other ill treatment at the detention centre during an 11-day interrogation.
He was denied access to a lawyer and was unable to see members of his family, the UN experts said.
Several others involved in the fracas were arrested and provided confessions but were not sentenced to death, human rights group Amnesty International reported.
Shahbazi was set to be executed on January 5, though this was delayed.
The execution has been scheduled and then postponed four times, causing “irreversible psychological pain and suffering to him and his family”, added the experts' statement.
“Iran must observe its international obligations by imposing … moratorium on the execution of juvenile offenders once and for all,” the experts added.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said last year that numerous UN bodies and experts had made it clear “time and again” that the death penalty for crimes committed by children was strictly prohibited.
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
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Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
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