According to an Iranian reporter, there are undisclosed and confidential reports in Soghra Najajpour’s file, the Iranian woman who is facing execution for alleged killing of the 8 old son of an influential family in Rasht 18 years ago at the age of 12. Soghra lived in the home of a Doctor since the age of 9, until she was accused of killing the family’s 8 year old son.
12 year old Soghra who initially had confessed to murder of the child later breaks her silence and stated that her initial testimony was false and she was told by the boy’s father that if she confessed murder, the doctor would get her released after pardoning her.
After breaking her silence, Soghra stated that ever since the age of 9 when she was sent to the doctor house as a maid, she was continually being raped by him. According to Soghra on the day of the incident, he again attempted to rape Soghra when the 8 year old boy entered the room and the nervous doctor nervously pushed his son away not to see when the boy’s head hit the wall and he died. Afterwards the doctor ordered Soghra to throw the child’s body in a well.
Although the police investigator had concluded that Soghra was subjected to multiple rape attempts by the father and also the medical reports verify signs of attempted rapes, however the Islamic judge dismissed the report and in addition to sentencing Soghra to death by hanging for murder, he also ordered Soghra to be lashed 100 times for having sex. The Judge’s reasoning for the verdict was that the signs of rape on Soghra’s body were only proof that she was guilty of sexual activity, but not proof that the Doctor had committed the rape.
Soghra was once taken to be executed at the age of 17 however the parents of the murdered boy changed their mind at the last minute, however after they were informed of release of Soghra by bail at the age of 31 , they again demanded Soghra’s execution.
In its recent article about Soghra’s new execution order, Etemaad newspaper censored the portion of the report about the rape and Doctor’s role although the information was reported by the news reporter. (Full report is posted in her personal blog).
