Amirhossein Pourjafar

Amirhossein Pourjafar (also stylised as Amir Hossein Pourjafar, 17 December 1999 - 4 January 2018) was an Iranian juvenile offender who was sentenced to death and executed[1] for the 2016 rape and murder of Setayesh Ghoreyshi, a 7-year-old girl from Iran's marginalised Afghan community. Pourjafar's execution sparked international outrage at the execution of juvenile offender who had barely become of age before his death, and renewed questions about the ethics of the death penalty.[2]

Amirhossein Pourjafar
Born(1999-12-17)17 December 1999
Died4 January 2018(2018-01-04) (aged 18)
Gohardasht Prison, near Tehran, Iran
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Criminal statusExecuted
Criminal chargeCapital murder
PenaltyDeath (September 2016)
Details
VictimsSetayesh Ghoreyshi, 7
Date10 April 2016

In September 2016, Branch 7 of Criminal Court No. 1 in Tehran handed Pourjafar two death sentences, one for murder in accordance with the Shariah legal principle of qisas and another for rape. He was also sentenced to 74 lashes for mutilating Ghoreyshi's corpse by placing it in a bath of acid after her death. The Supreme Court upheld both death sentences in January 2017.

Pourjafar had initially scheduled to be executed on 19 October 2017.[3] Iranian law allows the execution of death row inmates who committed their capital offences as minors, however it does not allow the execution of those inmates before they turn 18. Although Pourjafar would have been 17 years, 10 months and 2 days old on 19 October 2017 according to the Gregorian calendar, the Iranian legal system initially did not stay his execution as he would have been of age according to the Islamic calendar (19 October 2017 was equivalent to the Islamic date of 29 Muharram 1439, at which point Pourjafar would have been 18 years, 4 months and 20 days old, according to the Islamic calendar.) Ultimately, the execution was called off following pressure from the United Nations.[4] Assuming Pourjafar had been executed on this date, he would have been the fifth of six juvenile offenders executed in Iran in 2017.[5]

Pourjafar's execution was rescheduled to Thursday 4 January 2018, less than three weeks after his 18th birthday. Despite mounting criticism of his death sentence, he was hanged as scheduled at the gallows in Gohardasht Prison, Tehran at dawn on 4 January 2018.[6]

gollark: ↑
gollark: Not necessarily if you're banned, but in advance.
gollark: You *can* actually download that from Discord.
gollark: But what?
gollark: Oh, Ale's speaking. I didn't notice, since it turns out I actually had him muted.

See also

References
  1. "Iran: Juvenile Offender, Amir Hossein Pourjafar Executed | Shabtabnews". english.shabtabnews.com. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  2. Trew, Bel (2017-10-18). "Iran to send 17-year-old killer to the gallows". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  3. "Iran: 17-year-old boy at risk of imminent execution". www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  4. Section, United Nations News Service (2017-10-18). "UN News - Iran: UN rights experts urge country to halt imminent execution of juvenile Amirhossein Pourjafar". UN News Service Section. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  5. "Amir Hossein Pourjafar Scheduled To Be Executed On Thursday". iranhr.net. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  6. "Statement by the Spokesperson on the execution of a juvenile offender in Iran - EEAS - European External Action Service - European Commission". EEAS - European External Action Service. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.