Protest the death penalty of the children in Iran

The world is in a process of abolishing the death penalty, which used to be a planned crime committed by the states; this verdict has been handed down by the movement of human emancipation and pro-nullification of capital punishment. The world and human morals have forbidden aggressive punishment of children under 18, and their execution for many years. This decree has been legislated, as an international law, by the conscience of billions of people all over the world and it has been imposed to even the right wing and conservative governments to put into effect.

But the Islamic Republic of Iran, still brutally tortures the children, cruelly punishes and sentences them to death. In Iran, the capital punishment, and other Islamic punishments including retaliation, stoning, and whipping are legally enforced against children too; the Islamic regime, not only has enrolled and deployed thousands of the children solders to the Iran – Iraq war fronts and mine fields, but it has also been detaining, torturing and executing thousands of children for defying the religious rules for two decades.

Females over 9-year-old, and males over 15-year-old, according to the Islamic penal codes, are religiously adults, thus the Islamic punishments apply to them. There is no law, in Iran, to protect the children and their lives, from the state violation. Islamic veil (Hejab), execution, torturing, retaliation and stoning in Iran are legal punishments for children too and tens of thousands of children and youths have been victims of the Islamic regime’s barbarism.

According to a November 1999 report from Amnesty International, Iran is one of the six countries, which has executed children in 1999. Obviously, because of dictatorship and censorship in Iran, only a few reports and news about the regime’s cruelty are published and the Islamic regime’s violation against children is much more than what is publicly published.

The most recent death penalty is one that issued for a student who was arrested in the students uprising during the summer of 1999, and the Islamic regime has disclosed this only to frighten the public of being suppressed. In the beginning of year 2000, the Islamic Republic sentenced Morteza Amini Moghadam, who is under 18 year-old, to death and the authorities have confirmed this sentence.

We should protest this barbaric attack to the basic human rights in Iran. The Islamic regime must be stopped from attacking, physically and ideologically, the life and health of the children under 18. To stop this barbarism in Iran, please send your letter of protest and join our campaign to save the lives of Morteza Amini Moghadam, and the arrested students who have been sentenced to death. Please send your letter of protest to the office of the Iranian President and a copy to our address.

Children First

January 4, 2000

Soreya Shahabi

The address of the President of Iran:

Mohammed Khatami
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue
Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Iran

E-mail: Iranemb@salamiran.org