The European Union on Wednesday expressed its “deep concern” at the impending execution of an alleged juvenile offender in Iran. The European Union criticized Iran today for a spate of executions and plans to extend the scope of the death penalty, a day before it leads international talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
“The Presidency of the EU expresses its deep concern on news of the imminent execution of Mr Mohammad Fadaei who was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime committed when he was a minor”, the EU said in a statement issued by Slovenia which currently holds the 27-nation bloc’s rotating presidency.
“Two other juvenile offenders, Mr Behnood Shojaee and Mr Saeed Jazee, who were also convicted of crimes which took place when they were minors, have also been scheduled for execution on 11 June and 25 June 2008 respectively”, the EU said.
“The Presidency notes that these juvenile death sentences are in direct contravention of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s international obligations and commitments, specifically as set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both clearly prohibiting the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed when they were minors”, the statement added.
The EU called on Tehran to “comply with international law and to immediately halt the executions of Mr Mohammad Fadaei, Mr Behnood Shojaee, Mr Saeed Jazee and all other juvenile offenders on death row”.
What we have said here is only a brief listing of academic violations and denial of right to education in Iranian universities today. Students are determined to continue their legal and rightful struggle to promote independence of universities and uphold academic freedoms, although many are sacrificed down this path.
Iran is a state party to both the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (without reservation) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both of which prohibit the execution of persons under the age of 18 at the time of their offense. In ratifying the CRC, Iran declared an extremely broad reservation, “not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws.”
one must not forget that one aspect of “security” cases is the image that they carry for the groups that advance such issues. Therefore, before fake charges take to the news-media and become public, those who have had a hand in arresting the students must be weakened. Otherwise, after the severe charges are made public, repeated and are tied to the image of the actors, even the intervention of the head of the judiciary (as history demonstrates) cannot be of much help to the detainees.
How can we tell the judiciary officials of Iran that according to law juveniles can stay alive and continue to live with appropriate and suitable punishment? How must one make this request from the judiciary a public and wide-spread demand and point out that killing a juvenile who has not wholeheartedly committed an act does not solve any of the real problems facing the country?
Thousands of university students in an Iranian city have held a protest against the attempted sexual harassment of a female colleague by a top university official, the press reported on Monday. About 3,000 students at the university in the northwestern city of Zanjan staged the sit-in protest over the weekend at a sports hall on campus, the reports said.
