Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 April / Trend D. Khatinoglu/ In contradiction to all international conventions Iran continues implementation of juvenile death penalties. "Hundreds of juveniles in Iran's prisons are waiting for execution," Mina Ahadi, the Chairman of the International Committee against Executions, said to Trend .
According to Amnesty International, 317 people were executed in Iran during the recent year. The organization's report, which was publicized on 14 April, says that there are juvenile executions by stoning. The report also includes execution of a 13-year teenager in 2007.
"Amnesty International is developing a report based on official information. However, according to the information we have, death penalty in Iran is implemented at least two times less than it is indicated in official statistics," Ahadi said in a telephone conversation from Berlin on 15 April. She said that due to the protests coming from the international community, the official Teheran keeps the death penalty statistics in secret.
Currently imprisoned the human rights activist Imadeddin Baghi, Chair of the Committee on Protection of Iran's Prisoners, said to Trend at the end of last year that the human rights activists are carrying out serious work for prevention of death penalty, especially for juveniles. "In Iran, people are sometimes sentenced to death penalty unjustly, without advocacy. Most of the country's population opposes execution," Bagi said.
According to Ahadi, the teenagers try to hang themselves to get in touch with the population by loudspeakers from the prison so that the population can ask for pardoning of their punishment. "Ali Mikhan Torabi, Kamal Tehrani and teenagers of 14-15 years, who were sentenced to punishment, try to avoid this punishment, using every opportunity," the human rights activist.
Ahadi said that there are not concrete statistics on teenagers being sentenced to death. "There is no concrete information on this issue. However, 38 teenagers in Garaj prison were sentenced to death. We think that many teenagers are kept in other prisons. They are detained in prisons and punished after reaching 18 years of age," she added.
The Convention, adopted by the UN Council on Human Rights in 1975, requires that the international community should stop punishing teenagers. Iran was included in the Convention.
According to the report of Amnesty International, Iran occupies the second place after China for punishing children with death sentence.
