Posted on 08/23/2004 8:01:10 PM PDT by faludeh_shirazi
Amnesty International today expressed its outrage at the reported execution of a girl who is believed to be 16 years old, Ateqeh Rajabi, in Neka in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, on 15 August, for "acts incompatible with chastity" (amal-e manafe-ye 'ofat). Ateqeh Rajabi was reportedly publicly hanged on a street in the city centre of Neka.
Amnesty International is alarmed that this execution was carried out despite reports that Ateqeh Rajabi was not believed to be mentally competent, and that she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer at any stage.
The execution of Ateqeh Rajabi is the tenth execution of a child offender in Iran recorded by Amnesty International since 1990. Amnesty International has urged Iran's judicial authorities to halt further executions of child offenders - people who were under 18 years old at the time of the offence. This is to bring Iran's law and practice in line with requirements of international human rights law.
A bill to raise the minimum age for execution to 18 was reportedly under consideration by parliament in December 2003. However, the bill is not believed to have been ratified by the Guardian Council, Iran's highest legislative body.
Amnesty International believes that the execution of Ateqeh Rajabi underlines the urgent necessity that Iran pass legislation removing provision for the execution of child offenders, thereby preventing further execution of child offenders, and bringing Iran into line with its obligations under international law.
Further, the organization is urging the authorities to clarify whether Ateqel Rajabi had legal representation and whether a legally approved doctor deemed her psychologically fit to stand trial.
Background
According to report on Peyk-e Iran, Ateqeh Rajabi was sentenced to death approximately three months ago, by a lower court in Neka in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, for "acts incompatible with chastity".
During her trial, at which she was reportedly not represented by a lawyer, the judge allegedly severely criticised her dress, harshly reprimanding her. It is alleged that Ateqeh Rajabi was mentally ill both at the time of her crime and during her trial proceedings.
It is reported that although Ateqeh Rajabi's national ID card stated that she was 16 years old, the Mazandaran Judiciary announced at her execution that her age was 22.
The case reportedly attracted the attention of the Head of the Judiciary for the Mazandaran province, who ensured that the case be heard promptly by the Supreme Court. In Iran, all death sentences have to be upheld by the Supreme Court before they can be implemented.
The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, and Ateqeh Rajabi was publicly hanged in the city centre of Neka on 15 August. According to Peyk-e Iran, the lower court judge that issued the original sentence was the person that put the noose around her head as she went to the gallows.
On the same night that she was buried, Ateqeh Rajabi's corpse was reportedly removed from the grave by unknown individuals. The Rajabi family have lodged a complaint and have called for an investigation.
The co-defendant of Ateqeh Rajabi, an unnamed man, was reportedly sentenced to 100 lashes. He was released after this sentence was carried out.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is bound not to execute child offenders. Both treaties provide that capital punishment shall not be imposed for offences committed by persons under 18 year of age at the time of committing the offence.
Source: http://web.peykeiran.com/net_iran/irnewsbody.aspx?ID=17882
On Sunday August 15, 2004, a 16 year old girl by the name of Atefe Rajabi, daughter of Ghassem Rajabi, was executed in the town of Neka, located in the province of Mazandaran, for “engaging in acts incompatible with chastity”. The execution was carried out by the order of Neka’s “judicial administrator” and was approved by both the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic and the chief of the nation’s “judiciary branch.”
Although according to her birth certificate she was only 16 years old, the local court falsely claimed that she was 22.
Three months ago, during her appearance before the local court, fiercely angry the young girl hurled insults at the local judge, Haji Reza, who is also the chief judicial administrator of the city, and it is said as another expression of protest took off some of her clothes in the courtroom. This act by the young girl made the administrator so furious that he evaluated her file personally and in less than three months received a go-ahead from the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court for her execution. The animosity and anger of Haji Reza was so strong that he personally put the rope around the girl’s delicate neck and personally gave the signal to the crane operator, by raising his hand, to begin pulling the rope.
It may be noted that although according to the Islamic Republic’s own penal laws the presence of an attorney for the defense [is supposed to be] mandatory, regardless of the defendant’s ability to afford one, nevertheless the girl remained without an attorney. Her unfortunate father, while tears poured from his eyes, went about the city beseeching the townspeople for money to hire an attorney who in the least would provide his daughter with a line of defense.
The young girl was buried the same day after her execution but during that same night her corpse was disinterred by unknown individuals and robbed. The theft remains unexplained and the Rajabi family has filed a complaint.
The 16 year old girl’s male companion, who had been arrested as well, received 100 lashes and, after the Islamic punishment was carried out, released.
AZADI/FREEDOM!!!
Even though AI is right to condem this, they have no credibilty: they were against the execution of Ted Bundy, Tim McVeigh and host of others who deserved the death penalty.
Right - your points are agreeable - but that's not the point. The point is that such an org is at least acknowledging it - merely helps to give coverage to the issue.. Otherwise it is just aired by Farsi-based news and translated through work of several activists. I urge FOX and others to pickup this news.
Very true.
Okay, so AI is ticked, are they going to do anything about it....?
there ain't no ten commandments over there
That's true --- all they do is equate this young girl with Ted Bundy and others --- it's all the same to them.
Did she (gasp!) kiss a boy, or just flirt with one? .....or did someone merely accuse her of doing so?
I wish just one of these reports would state what her supposed crime was and what she actually did. Was she raped? Or was it consensual? Was it a sex act or kissing or what?
Most likely she was raped by some older man. She was only a child -- it would be rape even if it was consensual.
Cool pic and Khayyam quote. Nice to be reminded that Persia hasn't always been under the thumb of hateful religious fanatics, and has made great contributions to world culture.
The Iranian Mullahs are behind the so-called "insurgency" in Iraq. They have aided Al-Qaeda. They are trying to obtain nuclear weapons. They are enemy #1. They must be stopped.
I'm not saying AI is going to do anything - this is probably the extent of what they will do, the point is, and I will say again - it brings additional attention and publicity to the issue. From the reports many of us have read and trasnlated =- the young girl was extremely vocal and opinionated and let the judges have it in the court room. Likely she probably had a boyfriend or something and was not married - the regime is a fanatical dictatorship of the worst kind - the Mullahs make Saddam look like a little BITCH.
She bascially said screw the regime and took off her clothes in the court room to spite them and that was the way she could make the biggest protest against them. It is a very sad story - and the issue is, that we should recognize and educate everyone we can about the importance of supporting the Iranian people and working to free Iran from the reign of Mullahs - not to get in a tit for tat about some Amnesty Int. Organization. All we should care is that the pressure from Activist and readers of sites like FreeRepublic and others have pressured this organization to release a statement. That is all they will likely do, but from them, that is all we want. We can do a lot of the dirty work ourselves or other groups who are more capable. But this is a good thing.. lets not twist it and knock on the org that's putting out the news.
FREE IRAN!!!!
Soon, my friend, soon.
I'm floored they found time to leave the panties masked pictures from Iraq to even notice the lovely actions of the mullahs.
A most distressing story. Note that the man involved was not required to forfeit his life.
You won't hear anything from the "human rights" jawflappers of the Left. They're too busy concerning themselves about golf courses to worry about womens rights in the Middle East.
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