Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, said on 24 October that in breach of international law, but keeping with the country’s legislation, Iran executed seven juveniles last year and two juveniles this year.

Mr. Rehman told the Human Rights Committee of the UN General Assembly that he has reliable sources indicating ninety juvenile offenders are on the death row.

According to the Child Rights Convention, imperative by the signatory’s countries, signed by Iran in 1991, the death penalty and life imprisonment are prohibited.

Mohammad Hassani-Nejad, the Iranian regime’s representative at the UN, rejected the Rehman’s report saying: ” Dictators cannot comment on the situation of human rights in Iran”

Intimidating the society, the Iranian regime widely uses the death penalty, torture, and amputating body parts of the prisoners.

In the 21st century, #Iran's regime continues its medieval-style punishments.#HumanRightshttps://t.co/njVxb8WVDN

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 25, 2019

The Iranian regime has executed many Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) members under the age of eighteen. The mullahs have tortured and executed thousands of women affiliated to the MEK, some of them pregnant and many juveniles.

Fatemeh Mesbah, 13, Mojgan Jamshidi,14, and Nushin Emami and Maryam Qudsimaab, 16, are among the juveniles executed by this barbarian regime.

MEK repeatedly expressed its objection against the death penalty. The abolition of the death penalty is among the articles of the ten-point plan of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Despite exposing the heinous crimes against humanity in Iran by the MEK, the international community has failed to take firm action against the Iranian regime; however, the MEK has played a key role in the revelation of the nature of this religious fascist regime.

In a conference in the European Parliament on 23 October 2019 in Strasburg, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi introduced a book entitled “Crime Against Humanity”, to tens of Parliament members present. This book contains the names and information of more than five thousand victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran in which 30,000 political prisoners, mainly MEK members and supporters, were killed in just a few months. This book also reveals the addresses of 35 secret mass graves of the victims in detail. “Crime Against Humanity” also contains the information about the members of the “Death Committee” in thirty-six cities across Iran, responsible for the 1988 massacre.

Interesting report on the recent conference at the European Parliament- Strasbourg headquarter.
"New book details atrocities by Iranian regime in the 1980s – https://t.co/ZKdVNjqcyY – @WashTimes #1988Massacre #FreeIran #NoImpunity4Mullas

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 24, 2019

Execution and suppression are the main tools used by the Iranian regime, to prevent the restive society rising against it, and the defiant youth joining the MEK.

Everyday protest actions throughout Iran, as well as current demonstrations in Iraq and Lebanon against the Iranian regime clearly show that a free Iran and a stable region void of the regime’s meddling are within reach.

On Friday, Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the execution of Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran and called for an end to the execution of juvenile offenders. The 24-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman was executed on October 2, 2018. She was only 17 when she was arrested for the murder of her husband.

Denouncing the execution of a juvenile offender in #Iran, whose trial was also marred by irregularities, the top UN human rights official has called on the country to end the use of the death penalty for those under-18https://t.co/Gb0W96fRNA pic.twitter.com/xwnMTugXC8

— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) October 6, 2018

In a statement about the execution, High Commissioner Bachelet said, “The sheer injustice in the case of Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran is deeply distressing. The serious question marks over her conviction appear not to have been adequately addressed before she was executed.”

 

Lokran was executed despite pleas from Amnesty International to halt her execution, as well as appeals from the U.N. Special Rapporteurs and the U.N. Secretary-General dating back to her conviction in October 2014.

 

Lokran was arrested in February 2012 and tortured by police over a 20 day period before confessing to the murder of her husband. She later recanted her confession and said that her husband’s brother, whom she said raped her repeatedly, committed the murder and promised to pardon her if she took the blame for his crime. Lokran, who was forced into marriage at the age of 15, further said that she had endured months of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her husband and he had refused to grant her a divorce.

Lokran was refused access to an attorney until her trial, and authorities refused to investigate her claims of domestic abuse and rape. The court also refused to investigate her claim that she was coerced into a confession.

High Commissioner Bachelet condemned the execution of Lokran and spoke out about Iran’s use of the death penalty against juveniles in general. “As a State party to both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran has an obligation to abide by their provisions and to end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders,”

Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran is the 84th woman to be executed under regime President Rouhani. She is an example of the poor treatment of women under the regime, particularly those in rural villages, many of whom were forced into marriage before the age of 18. She is also an example of the way religious and ethnic minorities are treated in Iran’s legal system. It is common for Iranian Kurdish citizens as well as other ethnicities in Iran to be denied legal representation and coerced into false confessions.

The MEK is organizing the Iranian Resistance movement to fight for an alternative to the existing regime. Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran should not have had to marry at age 15. She should not have been abused or raped. She should not have been tortured or coerced into a false confession. She should not have been denied an attorney, and she should not have been executed.

High Commissioner Bachelet summed up her statement with these words: “The bottom line is that she was a juvenile at the time the offense was committed and international law clearly prohibits the execution of juvenile offenders.”

Staff Writer