BEIRUT — The case presented by the Iranian judiciary was simple: In the southern province of Fars, Fatemeh Salbehi suffocated her husband after drugging him, a capital crime in Iran.
What made the case controversial is that Salbehi was only 17, a minor by international legal standards, when she allegedly committed the crime. Her alleged confession also came during a series of interrogations where there was no lawyer present.
The case was retried but Salbehi was hanged in the Adel Abad prison in Shiraz last October.
The issue has come under scrutiny because of a scathing UN report on human rights in Iran last month which highlighted what it called the "alarmingly high" rate of executions in the country, including juveniles.
That report, along with an Amnesty International report in January, spurred commentary from ordinary Iranians on social media at least some of which criticized President Hassan Rohani for not doing more to stop the juvenile executions.
Iran has the highest rate of juvenile executions in the world, despite being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty that forbids capital punishment for anyone under 18.
Only a week before Salbehi's execution, another juvenile offender was executed.
"The fact that there were two executions in less than two weeks just shows how indifferent and contemptuous the Iranian authorities are of their obligations," said Raha Bahreini, the Iran researcher for Amnesty International.
In the past decade, Iran has executed at least 73 juvenile offenders, according to the January Amnesty report.
The juvenile executions have continued despite campaign promises made by Rohani in 2013 to reform human rights. Since coming to office, Rohani has been focused on foreign policy, such as the nuclear deal sealed with world powers last summer, and domestic issues like juvenile execution have been largely ignored, observers say.
"The administration can't just keep hiding behind the nuclear issue," said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "Rohani doesn't seem at all interested to push for it, fight the battle and improve the human rights situation. And that's a problem because we're now into the third year of his term."
Domestic law
Juveniles have been executed regularly since the establishment of the republic in 1979. Under Iranian law, the age for legally defining adulthood is determined by puberty, 15 for boys and nine for girls. When there is a discrepancy between domestic law and international legal obligations, Iranian authorities have turned to domestic law.
A request for comment sent to the Iranian judiciary was not answered. The head of the Iranian judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, has previously said that allegations that Iran executes juveniles under 18 is a "complete lie". No comment was immediately available from the presidency.
In recent years, the judiciary has generally held off on executing minors until after they turn 18. Salbehi was 23 when she was executed last fall. And there are at least 160 minors currently on death row, according to the United Nations. — Reuters
