Iranian authorities must stop the imminent scheduled execution of Mohammad Reza Azizi, a 21-year-old man, who was a 17-year-old child at the time of offence. Amnesty International has learned that the Iranian authorities plan to carry out his execution on Monday, 21 October 2024 in Shiraz, Fars province. His death sentence and planned execution contravene international law which strictly prohibits the imposition of the death penalty against individuals who were under 18 at the time of the alleged crime.
In response, Sara Hashash, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:
“The planned execution of Mohammed Reza Azizi puts on full display the Iranian authorities’ cruelty. Their repeated flagrant disregard for the right to life is an abhorrent assault on children’s rights. Using the death penalty against someone who was a child at the time of the crime is prohibited under international human rights and customary law and violates Iran’s international obligations.
“Mohammed Reza Azizi’s rights to a fair trial were violated, including by being interrogated without a lawyer and the court relying on his coerced ‘confessions’ as evidence to convict and sentence him to death. His execution would amount to arbitrary deprivation of life.
“The Iranian authorities must immediately halt Mohammad Reza Azizi’s execution, quash his conviction and sentence, and grant him a fair retrial in full compliance with the principles of juvenile justice and international standards and without resorting to the death penalty. The international community, including UN bodies and the EU and its member states, must urgently intervene to save this young man’s life.”
Background
Mohammad Reza Azizi was arrested in September 2020 when he was 17 years old. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by Branch 1 of Criminal Court One of Fars province on 15 August 2021. According to legal documents reviewed by Amnesty International, he was interrogated without a lawyer present after his arrest and the criminal court subsequently relied on these “confessions” to issue its verdict sentencing Mohammad Reza Azizi to death. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in November 2021. A request for judicial review was rejected in July 2023.
According to legal documents reviewed by Amnesty International, the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran, a state forensic institute under the judiciary’s supervision, concluded that he had attained “mental growth and maturity” at the time of the crime without providing an explanation of how it reached this conclusion beyond noting he was able to name his first and last name.
Amnesty International has repeatedly urged the Iranian authorities, including judges and doctors from the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran, to halt these “maturity assessment” processes that inherently violate children’s human rights and risk subjecting them to the death penalty, and instead adopt a position that treats all individuals under 18 as less mature and culpable than adults, in accordance with international juvenile justice principles.
Mohammad Reza Azizi is currently held in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz, Fars province. The Iranian authorities have scheduled his execution at least once earlier this year, according to information received by Amnesty International.
As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obliged to treat anyone under the age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subjected to the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
Header image: Mohammad Reza Azizi © Private
