Reza Alinejad could soon be the 7^th minor to be executed this year in Iran

Translated from Persian to English on Reza Alinejad’s lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s article http://www.mostafaei.blogfa.com/post-85.aspx

Reza Alinejad was no more than 17 years old when he defended himself and his friend Hadi Abedini in fight with two other boys that landed him in prison for the last six years in Adel Abad in Shiraz, Iran.

He is now 21 years old.

Esmail Dooroodi

With the permission of the Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi, he may soon join the ranks of

Bahman Saliminian, Rahim Ahmadi, Amir Amrollahi, Mohammad Reza Haddadi, Behnoud Shojaei and Mohammad Fadaei, as the 7^th juvenile to be executed this year.

 At 8:30 pm 5/10/ 1381(Persian Calendar) Reza Alinejad and his friend Hadi Abedini were on the sidewalk of Emamzadeh Hassan busy eating when they were reproached by two men Esmail Dooroodi and Mohammad Firouzi.

Insults were exchanged which triggered a fight.

The two men were concealing Nunchucks (martial arts tool) under their clothes and tried to hit Alinejad and his friend.

Alinejad defended himself with a knife in one hand while protecting his face with the other hand. Without intending to kill Dooroodi, his knife cut his neck which ended up being fatal.

 A lot of Investigation was done to reveal the facts.

1)       It was revealed in Firouzi’s testimony that the fight was started by the deceased who attacked Alinejad and Abedini with nunchucks. Reza had no other recourse but to defend himself and his friend. The two men hand surrounded Alinejad and Abedini. Alinejad was injured with a blow to the head by the nunchucks

2)       Mr. Gholam Hossein-Chehrenegar who was a witness attested to the fact that there is no doubt that Reza Alinejad did not intentionally kill the man. Rather it was because of self defence that the other man was killed.

3)       These testimonies reveal that this was in fact self defence and the fact that the accused had to intention of killing anyone.  Despite Alinejad being only 17 years old when this incidence happened, Court #6 in the city of Fasa convicted him on charges of murder.

The lawyer asked for a retrial and the file was sent to the court of appeal in the same city.

The judges said :

“There was no animosity between the fighting parties prior to this incident. The initiator of the fight was the deceased and his friend Abedini who used nunchucks to attack Reza Alinejad and his friend and ended up injuring Alinejad’s forehead. It was a very dangerous piece of equipment that was used. Reza Alinejad claims that he defended himself by throwing a kitchen knife and accidentally stroked the neck of the deceased which caused his death. Therefore because Reza Alinejad defended and ended up killing a man, it is right for him to be executed”.

This above verdict was cancelled and the file was sent anew to a different branch for further investigation.

4)       The file was sent to branch 101 of criminal court in Fasa city. This branch concluded that because the accused could have run away from the scene, they reaffirmed the execution once again.

This goes against the earlier witness’ testimony that Reza Alinejad and Hadi Abedini could have not fled the scene as they had been surrounded.

In any case, based on Reza Alinejad’s protest that he is innocent, the file was sent to the Supreme Court. Without taking into consideration the facts in the file, the judges issued the verdict of execution once again for Reza Alinejad.

After the death sentence verdict, the file was sent in order for the execution to be carried out.

According to article 205 of the Penal code in Iran, it is required for the execution order to be approved by the Head of Judiciary. A few days ago the Judiciary Head approved Reza Alinejad’s execution which has put him in an imminent situation to be executed. If the Head of Judiciary does not stop this execution due to the facts aforementioned, or if the family of the victim does not give their pardon, Reza will soon be sent to be executed. Iran has the highest number of executions for those under the age of 18.

October 8th in parts of the world including Iran is the Day of the Child. Article 37(a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by Iran , states that no capital punishment shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

Islamic regime in Iran is planning to execute Mohammad Reza Haddadi, one day after the Day of the Child, for an alleged crime at the age of 15. The execution is scheduled after direct order of head of Iran's judiciary Ayatollah Shahrudi.

Iran is the only country in the world who has executed juveniles in 2008. So far at least 6 juveniles are known to have been executed this year. Yesterday Stop Child Executions  released the most comprehensive list of recommendations ever published for ending the practice of juvenile executions in Iran. The document was accompanied with a list of 140 Iranian children facing death penalty in Iran. SCE has requested the UN to immediately create a task force to address the child executions in Iran and to hold the government of Iran responsible and subject to disciplinary action by the international community: http://scenews.blog.com/3964190/

Mohammad Reza Haddadi, aged 18, is held in Adelabad prison in the city of Shiraz. He was sentenced to death in January 2004 by a court in Kazeroun for the murder of a man in 2003. He had confessed to the murder, but retracted the confession during his trial, saying he had claimed responsibility for the killing because his two co-defendants had offered his family money if he did so. Mohammad Reza Haddadi stated during the trial that he had not taken part in murder of a man who had offered him and the two others a lift in his car. The two others later supported Mohammad Reza Haddadi's claims of innocence, and withdrew their testimony that implicated him in the murder. His co-defendants, both over 18 at the time of the crime, are said to have received lesser sentences. However, in July 2005, a branch of the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Mohammad Reza Haddadi and later authorized by Ayatollah Shahroudi, the Head of Iran's Judiciary.

Stop Child Executions, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many others worldwide have demanded a halt to executions of Mohammad Reza Haddadi.

Stop Child Executions recognizes the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offenses, but is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances especially for those person guilty of crimes committed before the age of 18.

For read more about Mohammad Reza visit: http://scenews.blog.com/Mohammadreza%20Haddadi/

Hossein Hejazi : My name is Hossaine. I am Reza’s older brother and am willing to speak with you. My mother and father are not emotionally ready to talk about the matter at this time.

Mino Hemati : I understand, thank you. You are the brother of Reza Hejazi the boy who was convicted of an underage crime and is now

The teenagers were also sentenced to three years in prison and 100 lashes.

According to the newspaper, the suspects confessed to raping the boys, tying them up and then tossing them into the river in Marvdasht town to drown them. There were two other suspects in the crime, one of whom was acquitted and the other sentenced to flogging.

Source: http://www.nessunotocchicaino.it/nl.php?nid=9326784

Considering that Reza is 16 years of age, this brings total recorded number of Iranian children facing execution to 80:

Girls (3):

• Delara Darabi, 17
• Nazbibi Ateshbejan, 16
• Soghra Najafpour, 13

Boys (77):

• Abbass Hosseini, 17
• Abdolkhaleq Rakhshani
• Ahmad Jabari, 15
• Ahmad Nourzahi, 12
• Akoo Hosseini
• Ali Alijan, 17
• Ali Mahin Torabi, 16
• Ali Norumohammadi, 16
• Ali Shabehzadeh, 17
• Alireza Movassili Roudi, 16
• Amir Calehchaleh, 17
• Asghar, 16
• Behador Khaleqi, 16
• Behnam Zare, 15
• Beniamin Rasouli, 17
• Farshad Sa'eedi, 17
• Farzad, 15
• Feyz Mohammad, 16
• Feyzollah Soltani
• Gholam Nabi Barahouti, 16
• Habib Afsar, 15
• Hamed, 15
• Hamid, 17
• Hamid Reza, 14
• Hamzeh S., 17
• Hani Momeni Yasaqi
• Hasan Mozaffari
• Hedayat Niroumand, 14 or 15
• Hossein Gharabaghloo, 16
• Hossein Haghi, 17
• Hossein Toranj, 17
• Iman, 17
• Khodamorad Shahemzadeh, 17
• Mahmoud, 17
• Masoud, 17
• Mehdi, 16
• Mehyar Haghgoo, 17
• Mehyar Anvari, 17
• Milad Bakhtiari, 16
• Mohammad Ahmadi 16
• Mohammad Jahedi
• Mohammad Jamali Paghale, 15
• Mohammad Latif, 14
• Mohammad Mavari, 16
• Mohammad Pezhman
• Mohammad Reza Turk
• Morteza Feizi, 16
• Mosleh Zamani 17
• Mostafa, 16
• Mostafa Sa'idi
• Nabavat Baba'I, 17
• Na'im Kolb'ali, 15
• Naser Qasemi, 15
• Ne'mat, 15
• Nosrat, 15
• Omarraddin Alkuzehi, 17
• Omid Sarani, 17
• Rahman Shahidi
• Rasoul Eyvatvandi, 17
• Rasoul Mohammadi, 17
• Rasoul Nouriyani
• Rasoul Safari, 17
• Reza Alinejad, 17
• Reza Padashi, 16
• Reza, 16
• Saber
• Sadegh Ahmadpour, 17
• Sa'eed Jazee, 17
• Safar Angooti, 17
• Sa'id Arab
• Sajjad, 17
• Salman Akbari, 17
• Shahram Pourmansouri, 17
• Sina Paymard, 16
• Siyavash Shirnejad
• Vahid, 16
• Zolf'ali Hamzeh,

Nazanin Afshin-Jam spoke with Reza Alinejad's mother this morning who informed her that Reza's file had been sent to Tehran and that decisions were being made. With the lawyers that are helping him in Iran and the support from the International communtiy, they are hoping for a positive outcome. Reza mother's reported that her son is happier since having moved to a different cell in prison. He is a more comfortable with the new inmates that he has come into contact with and says there are not the same amount of fights that used to take place in his old division.
 
Nazanin Afshin-Jam also spoke with Delara Darabi's mother this morning who said that Delara's file seems to be stagnant and they have no idea what is taking place or what will take place. Mrs. Darabi admitted that although Delara seems to be happier with the environment of her new prison cell, she is still not doing very well, because "prison is prison afterall". Her family tries to continue  to bring  hope to Delara.